Pieces of the Old Steel Bridge have become a work of art through the collaboration between Linderman Education Center art students and metal and glass artist Lee Proctor.

The sculpture, “Infinity Bridge,” symbolizes the merging of Bridge Academy and Laser Alternative School in fall 2013.

Pete Skibsrud of Kalispell donated two 8-foot-long pieces of the bridge, which used to cross the Flathead River, shortly before the schools merged to become Linderman Education Center.

Linderman Director Jodie Barber was tasked with figuring out what to do with the Old Steel Bridge pieces and turned to art teacher Laura McCann.

McCann connected with Proctor through the Hockaday Art Museum. She then received a Kalispell Education Foundation Great Opportunities grant for $2,000 to fund the project.

On May 23, the tall sculpture was close to completion in Proctor’s studio. The sculpture has two upright pieces of slightly curved 12-inch channel iron that Proctor had sitting in a field.

“See, I was building a stairway about 15 years ago and these channels were bent for this stairway,” Proctor said pointing to a brochure photo of a completed staircase. “But they never worked. The radius wasn’t right. I always wondered what I’d do with it.”

 The bridge pieces, which have been welded into two arrow shapes, will be affixed to the top of the channels.

Not far from the sculpture, Proctor and assistant Nate Adoretti of Bigfork shaped the second of two colorful glass globes will be affixed to the arrows while Linderman students Rebecca Goodloe, 18, Bryanna Gilliam, 17 and Jesse DeLaughder, 17 watched nearby.

Proctor then called them over to try glass blowing.

Crouching low to the ground, Goodloe breathed into a long blowpipe. The glass globe attached at the end expanded very slightly. Goodloe said she was excited to be part of creating the sculpture.

“I feel like art is really important and this is art that everybody can see,” Goodloe said. “And without art and music we’d be nothing.”

The sculpture encompasses original concepts conceived in sketches by Linderman students. A selection committee narrowed down students’ sketches and Proctor sketched a final design pulling in common elements from the student sketches.

“They had good ideas, ideas that kept reoccurring — triangles, spheres — that’s why we did the globes,” Proctor said.

From conception to the final handprint casting, McCann estimates between 12 and 15 students will have worked on the sculpture.

After the glass globes were completed to Proctor’s satisfaction, he and Adoretti sprinted over to the kiln. Working with glass requires planning, dexterity and bringing on the heat.

“The glass is constantly cooling as soon as we take it out, so we constantly have to be heating it up,” Proctor said. “It’s the dance back and forth with the heat.”

The three students also had their handprints cast in glass that day. The sculpture will be inlaid with 10 glass castings of handprints of some students, staffers, Kalispell Education Foundation members, Proctor and Adoretti.

“I think it’s a good thing to kind of show we can do small things for the community,” Gilliam said.

To prepare molds, Goodloe, Gilliam and DeLaughder press their hands into a container of sand in the middle of circular frames. Adoretti then chars the surface of the sand with a blowtorch so that it will be less likely to stick to the glass.

Proctor and Adoretti then retrieved molten glass from a fiery furnace and poured it into the molds.

The students, McCann, Barber and some community members watched the brilliant red-orange glass fill the handprints, bringing to mind primordial images. When the handprints are completed, however, they will be a palette of green, blue, gold or saffron.

The current Linderman sign is being relocated so the sculpture can be installed in its place sometime next week.

The sculpture will be 19 feet tall and 9 feet across. It will be installed on a concrete base donated by NW Concreteworks of Whitefish and a steel plate donated by Pacific Steel.

Barber said she is pleased with how the art program has grown since Bridge — which was primarily digital classes — merged with Laser.

“We’ve always had some great art teachers at Laser, but Bridge kids have never had access to an actual art class, so it was very exciting to open up this opportunity to all students in our building,” Barber said.

McCann added that the students have been full of ideas since she took the position about a year ago.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.