MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake Museum and Art Center infused the community with art in the first year of Sculptures Without Walls.

The idea was spearheaded by MAC director Terry Mulkey and Sculptures Without Walls project coordinator Ramon Cerna, along with the Moses Lake Parks and Recreation Department. Their vision was to place sculptures from various local artists throughout the downtown area of Moses Lake, literally providing art to the public without walls.

"The idea was to, sort of, bring art out to the people," said Cerna. Fourteen pieces were installed throughout the city last August. Since then, the MAC has been asking the public to vote for their favorite piece. The City of Moses Lake agreed to purchase the sculpture which garnered the first annual People's Choice Award. This year that honor goes to Gretchen Daiber for her sculpture, "Fox Trot," which has been displayed on Third Avenue next to the post office.

"I was totally surprised and thrilled," Daiber said of the honor the art community has awarded her. "It's nice to know (the sculpture) has a permanent home."

The criteria for displaying work in Sculptures Without Walls is tough.

"It has to be work that can stand being outside for a year," said Mulkey. The artists send in pictures of their work along with an entry form, an artist's statement and a resume. Then the artists are narrowed down and chosen by a committee.

On June 3, the current sculptures will come down and on June 11 pedestals for a new batch of sculptures will be put up. The pedestals include information such as the artist's name, name of the piece and the sponsor of the piece. All of the sculptures are sponsored by local businesses.

On June 17, at least 18 new sculptures will be installed and the MAC will hold a reception for the artists participating in the project. Cerna said that there were one or two more artists who were still uncertain as to whether or not they would be displaying their artwork this year.

The MAC will have to accommodate for the remodeling of the downtown area this year, so they won't be able to place any sculptures downtown.

"Right now we're in the process of finding locations and it looks like we might be concentrating on the Civic (Center) Park area. There are some excellent sitest down there," said Mulkey.

"We hope the community gets behind us and gets out and votes. It's important that they do, that there's a dialogue," said Mulkey of the communication he hopes to achieve between the public and Sculptures Without Walls artists over the next year.

The sculptures are all for sale by the artists and Mulkey and Cerna are hoping that some of the works will sell to support participating artists.

"I think we've accomplished, for the first year, what we want," said Mulkey. "Now hopefully it will get bigger next year."