Public art can honor a culture or a group of people—the Czech Immigrant Memorial Gate at North High Bridge Park honors the Czech and Slavonic immigrants who lived and worked on Saint Paul’s West End.
Public art also enhances public gardens and creates focal points in landscaping projects. Many public art pieces in Saint Paul feature beautiful landscaping of woody and herbaceous plants. The Henrik Ibsen statue in Como Park features landscaping of daylilies and other plant materials. Often, artists incorporate this natural material as part of their sculpture media, as did Craig David, the artist for the Queen of the Wandering Races found in Parque Castillo.
The 39 pieces of public art featured in this section document the stories and histories of the people and places of Saint Paul and assist with Blooming Saint Paul, an initiative to beautify the city.
For more information on individual sculptures, click on the pins on the map below.
View Saint Paul Public Art in a larger map
See Saint Paul's Public Art Ordinance Progam for more information on public art policy in Saint Paul.
The City of Saint Paul works in partnership with Public Art Saint Paul, a nonprofit, to maintain, promote, and exhibit public art. Find out more at Public Art Saint Paul.
Celebrate the people and events in your life by dedicating a bench, picnic table, sculpture, or by planting trees and flowers.
Artist Name: Geri Connelly
Media: Cement
Date Created: 1/1/1999
Location: Phalen Poetry Park
History: These benches provide an artistically intriguing resting place. Presently, Connelly works as a staff member at Avalon School. She has also taught art at the University of Minnesota, the Minneapolis Community and Technical College, the Blake School, and the North High School in North St. Paul. She often assists with public art projects.
Artist Name: Nick Legeros
Media: Bronze; Base: sandstone and concrete
Date Created: 1/1/1994
Location: Lyton Park
History: Part of Nick Legeros’s Dreams of our Children series, the Boy on Turtle illustrates a longing to live in harmony with nature. As the sculptor explained, “I wanted to create a work of art with a subject that would have universal appeal as well as be pleasing to the eye. We all have dreams as children and at this tender age did not distinguish those dreams on the basis of race, gender, or economic status. Longing to fly, swim, or ride with creatures of this earth can be interpreted as a desire to live in harmony with nature. I feel we need to express these concepts as an example for our children and a reminder to ourselves.”
Artist Name: Cliff Garten
Media: Brick Plaza, wood and concrete pergola, bronze sculptures, stone plaques lined with trees and grass.
Date Created: 1/1/1991
Location: Kellogg Mall Park
History: Shortly after the establishment of Public Art Saint Paul, Cliff Garten, in collaboration with city landscape architects Tim Agness and Jody Martinez, began re-designing Kellogg Mall Park, originally established in 1931. The sculptures illustrate Father Galtier’s Chapel of 1841, the site upon which Saint Paul was founded, as well as Cass Gilbert’s intended link between the State Capitol and the River along Cedar Street.
Garten received his Master of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design. He received his Masters of Landscape Architecture from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, where, among other places, he also worked as a visiting critic.
Artist Name: Harriet W. Frishmuth
Media: Bronze with green patina; Base: bronze fountain with black patina
Date Created: 1/1/1925
Location: Como Park Palm Dome
History: In 1925, Harriet Frishmuth created this bronze sculpture in the Beaux-Arts Style, which is characterized by a lively naturalism reflecting the optimism at the turn of the century. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1880, Frishmuth pursued art in Paris, Berlin, and New York. She began sculpting bookends, ashtrays, and figurines and progressed to larger portraits of female dancers, often as fountains. In 1916, Frishmuth met Desha Delteil, a popular concert dancer, whom she used as a model for many of her most successful sculptures. Because of the Great Depression, she moved from New York back to Philadelphia. She received several awards before she died in 1980, in Connecticut, at the age of ninety-nine. Many consider Crest of the Wave one of Frishmuth's finest achievements.
Artist Name: Craig David
Media: stone, steel, concrete, garden plants
Date Created: 9/1/2004
Location: North High Bridge Park
History: This sculpture honors the Czech and Slovak immigrants and their families that have lived and worked in the West End of Saint Paul since the 1860s. It incorporates historic salvaged materials including a baptismal gate from Saint Stanislaus Kostka Catholic Church and granite curbstones and pavers from city streets. This piece illustrates several themes. The pylons from granite curb stones and pavers identify the space and the park both as a gateway to the West End and a transition to a better life. The baptismal gate honors the role of the church of Saint Stanislaus Kostka in supporting the community. The figurative representation of the Czech composer Antonin Dvorak’s opera Rusalka and his famous aria “Ode to the Moon” represent the importance of music in the life of Czech and Slovak people. The opera unfolds the tale of Rusalka, the water-nymph, who, under a witch’s spell, tragically leaves her underwater home. This reference to the nocturnal water fairies of Slavonic folklore also refers to the Mississippi, whose overlook this sculpture adorns.
David graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1976, with a Bachelor of Science in Art Education and received from the University of Oregon his Master of Fine Arts in Painting. Presently he creates collaborative environmental site works, drawing on the culture of the people for whom he creates the piece. He lives in the West Side of Saint Paul.
Artist Name: Betty Sievert
Media: Bronze; Base: Stone
Date Created: 1/1/1982
Location: Como Zoo
History: Betty Sievert donated this bronze portrait in memory of Don, a popular gorilla, to the Como Park Zoo in 1982. His statue now provides a popular location for family pictures. Betty Sievert also illustrates children’s books.
Artist Name: Michael Price
Media: Bronze with warm brown patina on red granite base
Date Created: 1/1/1996
Location: Rice Park
History: Price created this sculpture, representing F. Scott Fitzgerald in his early thirties, to honor the renowned author on the centennial of his birthday. Price said, “I found Fitzgerald to be an honest and generous person, and I wanted to express those qualities in the work.” Price equated his work with the author’s—naturalism, as opposed to realism, characterizes the work of both. “Fitzgerald said he didn't have a large idea, but he had a large perception, and so developed content from the vantage point of immediate human experience. I wanted to emulate that approach,” Price explained, “making this work immediately accessible and engaging.”
Born in 1896, on Cathedral Hill in Saint Paul, Fitzgerald and his family moved to Buffalo, New York, when he was fifteen. Upon returning to Minnesota five years later, he attended the Saint Paul Academy. He entered Princeton University but withdrew before graduation. In 1920, he married Zelda Sayre. During this time, he supported himself by writing a few novels and many short stories. Later, he moved to Hollywood to write scripts for Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. In 1940, Fitzgerald, age forty-four, died in Hollywood.
Artist Name: Edwin H. Lundie
Media: 3 Reliefs: Bronze; Base: Boulder
Date Created: 1941
Location: Kellogg Mall Park
History: While transporting the eighteen ton stone to Kellogg Mall Park, the axle of the 3.4 ton truck broke from the weight. However, the memorial finally arrived two days later on June 9, and the city held the dedication the following day.
In 1841, Father Lucien Galtier, a French Catholic missionary, built the Church of Saint Paul on the bank of the Mississippi River. This chapel rested on the site of the present City of Saint Paul, which was named after the chapel. Before this time, the area had been called Pigs Eye after the saloon proprietor Pierre “Pigs Eye” Parrant.
Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1886, the architect Edwin H. Lundie moved to Saint Paul in 1904. He designed over three hundred projects in Saint Paul, including residences for many of Saint Paul’s wealthy citizens. He died in 1972, at age eighty-five.
Artist Name: Ann Klefstad and Jeffrey Kalstrom
Media: Bronze with dark brown, red and green patina; Mounted on concrete walls
Date Created: 6/30/2001
Location: Harriet Island Gateway
History: In 2001, the city commissioned this sculpture when redesigning Harriet Island to be a setting for large events. This sculpture decorates a gateway in the levee system along the Mississippi River.
Klefstad graduated from Saint Olaf College with a triple major in Art, English, and a self-designed major in philosophy and the aesthetics of metaphor. She has received many grants and commissions, producing art not only around the Twin Cities, but also around the nation. She presently writes reviews, editorials, and critiques of contemporary art for mnartist.org and teaches writing at the University of Minnesota, Duluth.
Kalstrom, who hails from Minnesota, works as a metal sculptor.
Media: Brick tile
Date Created: 6/1/2000
Location: Harriet Island Regional Park
History: In 2001, the city commissioned this sculpture when redesigning Harriet Island to be a setting for large events. This sculpture decorates a gateway in the levee system along the Mississippi River.
Klefstad graduated from Saint Olaf College with a triple major in Art, English, and a self-designed major in philosophy and the aesthetics of metaphor. She has received many grants and commissions, producing art not only around the Twin Cities, but also around the nation. She presently writes reviews, editorials, and critiques of contemporary art for mnartist.org and teaches writing at the University of Minnesota, Duluth.
Kalstrom, who hails from Minnesota, works as a metal sculptor.
Artist Name: J. Paul Nesse
Media: Bronze with tan, blue and brown patina; Pedestal: Concrete
Date Created: 5/1/1976
Location: Boyd Park
History: Born in Atchison, Kansas, to a Kentuckian and an African American, Frank Boyd organized the Pullman Porters of St. Paul. In 1926, Boyd became an officer in the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Twin Cities Division. Because of his organizing activities, the Pullman Company fired him. He was one of the first two African American electors in the history of the Democratic Party; consequently, in 1944, he attended Franklin D. Roosevelt’s inauguration ceremony as a member of the electoral college.
Born in Montana around 1951, Nesse cultivated an interest in cars early in life. These provided the first models for his sculptures. He worked in a bookstore until the demand for his sculptures increased. Gradually, people began requesting portraits from him, sometimes with a car. Before long, his sculptures produced enough income to sustain him and his family. Presently, Nesse works from his studio near Stillwater, Minnesota while collectors around the world display his pieces.
Artist Name: The Milligan Studio
Media: Stainless Steel and kiln-formed glass
Date Created: Fall 2024
Location: Westgate Commons Park
History: The two 8 ft. tall half-moon gates feature the silhouettes of overlapping gingko leaves. The artists highlighted the ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) due to its presence in the neighboring communities. It is a common ornamental and shade tree in the Twin Cities, frequently used as a boulevard tree due to its tolerance of both salt and urban pollution. Like most people who live in this country, the ginkgo originated elsewhere; it is native to China. In this regard Ginkgo/Light celebrates, in the words of the artists, “those who are ‘transplanted’ here and, like the ginkgo, adapt and grow deep roots.” The hope is that Ginkgo/Light will become a landmark that celebrates this diverse and vibrant urban village.
Funding for this permanent public art project was made possible thanks to the City of Saint Paul Parks and Recreation Department and a grant from the University of Minnesota’s Good Neighbor Fund.
Artist Name: Nick Legeros
Media: Bronze; Base: Sandstone and concrete
Date Created: 1/1/1994
Location: Lyton Park
History: Part of Nick Legeros’s Dreams of our Children series, the Girl on Dolphin illustrates a longing to live in harmony with nature. As the sculptor explained, “I wanted to create a work of art with a subject that would have universal appeal as well as be pleasing to the eye. We all have dreams as children and at this tender age did not distinguish those dreams on the basis of race, gender, or economic status. Longing to fly, swim, or ride with creatures of this earth can be interpreted as a desire to live in harmony with nature. I feel we need to express these concepts as an example for our children and a reminder to ourselves.”
Artist Name: Nick Legeros
Media: Bronze; Base: Sandstone and concrete
Date: 1/1/1994
Location: Lyton Park
History: Part of Nick Legeros’s Dreams of our Children series, the Girl on Goose illustrates a longing to live in harmony with nature. As the sculptor explained, “I wanted to create a work of art with a subject that would have universal appeal as well as be pleasing to the eye. We all have dreams as children and at this tender age did not distinguish those dreams on the basis of race, gender, or economic status. Longing to fly, swim, or ride with creatures of this earth can be interpreted as a desire to live in harmony with nature. I feel we need to express these concepts as an example for our children and a reminder to ourselves.”
Artist Name: Unknown
Media: Granite; Base: Cement
Date Created: 1/1/1923
Location: Como Park Lily Pond
History: In 1910, shortly after the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, architect Yukio Itchikawa designed a Japanese Imperial garden in Como Park. The only remaining vestige is a large granite bullfrog, which has no particular symbolism in itself. Fred Crosby donated the frog, originally part of the Crosby estate which overlooks the Mississippi River, to Como Park when he inherited his father’s estate. Upon the removal of the gardens to make room for the golf course in 1928, the park moved the frog to its present location in the pond.
Artist Name: Joel Sisson
Media: Wood and paint
Date Created: 11/2/2002
Location: High Bridge Park North
History: Built in 1995, the first chair that rested at this site sat at the Walker Art Center before coming to High Bridge Park as a publicity piece for the Green Chair Project. The Green Chair Project employed Saint Paul youth to construct and market regular-sized green Adirondack lawn chairs. The present chair replaced the original in 2002, when weathering destroyed it. It weighs two thousand, five hundred pounds.
Artist Name: Craig David
Media: Sandstone
Date Created: 2001
Location: Harriet Island Gateway
History: The city created this entrance through the levee system protecting the West Side of Saint Paul to encourage pedestrians from the neighborhood to frequent the park. Using 14.5 million dollars, the city renovated Harriet Island Park. This was part of a project redirecting the city’s attention to the Mississippi River, the reason for the establishment of Saint Paul. The stone carvings depict the history of the immigrants of the West Side neighborhood.
David graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1976, with a Bachelor of Science in Art Education and received from the University of Oregon his Master of Fine Arts in Painting. He presently creates collaborative environmental site works, drawing on the culture of the people for whom he creates the piece. He lives in the West Side of Saint Paul.
Artist Name: Jacob Fjelde
Media: Bronze bust with dark brown patina; Base: Granite
Date Created: 1/1/1912
Location: Como Park
History: The Norwegian artist, Fjelde, created this bust of Henrik Ibsen in a series of three. These came from a casting he created while visiting the Norwegian poet and playwright in 1885. Given to the city in 1907, the sculpture disappeared in July of 1982. Eleven years later, Public Art Saint Paul and a group of Augsburg College Students discovered the bust in a Robbinsdale video store. After much legal maneuvering and a wait to determine funding, the city restored and reinstalled the bust in 1999.
Born in 1828 in Norway, Ibsen left home at fifteen to work as an apprentice pharmacist and to write plays. His first plays were not well received at the time. Nevertheless, he later worked at the Norwegian Theater in Burgen, assisting in writing, directing, and producing over one hundred forty-five plays. In 1858, he married Suzannah Thoresen. In 1864, he left to live in Italy, where he spent the next twenty-seven years. He wrote his first successful play, Brand, in 1865. While his plays stirred controversy, they also brought him long-desired financial stability. He moved to Germany in 1868, where he wrote some of his more famous plays. He died in Norway in 1906.
Born in 1859, in Aalesund, Norway, Fjelde immigrated to America in 1887. He was one of the first notable Minneapolis sculptors to open a studio there. He created many well-known sculptures around the Twin Cities, including the Ibsen bust, the Hiawatha and Minnehaha sculpture at Minnehaha Park, and the Minerva sculpture at the Minneapolis Central Library. He died at age thirty-seven in 1896. His sisters Thomane and Gerhardine embroidered the official banner for the State of Minnesota.
Artist Name: Paul Manship
Media: Dark brown patina on bronze on metal base inside teal and blue tile circular pool
Date Created: 1/1/1926
Location: Cochran Park
History: The Saint Paul native and internationally acclaimed artist Paul Manship created this elegant Art Deco style statue. The city originally installed the sculpture in Cochran Park but because of vandalism replicated it and relocated it to Como Park. The move did not solve the vandalism problem; therefore, in 1996, the city renovated the sculpture and returned it to Cochran Park, placing the replica in Como Park.
Born in 1888, in Saint Paul, Manship began studying art at the Saint Paul School of Art, from whence he moved to New York City. From there he went on to study in Europe. He produced more than seven hundred pieces before he died in 1966.
Artist Name: Unknown
Media: Stone
Date Created: 1904
Location: Charlotte Partridge Ordway Japanese Garden
History: Four white granite lanterns remain from the 1904 tea garden, part of the original Japanese Imperial Garden created by Yukio Itchikawa. Dr. Schiffman donated to Como Park this first Japanese Garden, which he purchased from Itchikawa at the 1904 World Fair in Saint Louis. Unfortunately, the original garden disappeared from the Park Commission reports in 1909, and completely disappeared in 1928, when the golf course acquired the plot. Fifty years later in 1979, a second Japanese garden, the Como Ordway Memorial Japanese Garden, opened to the public. Designed by the Nagasaki landscaper, Masami Matsuda, this new garden symbolizes Saint Paul’s sister city relationship with Nagasaki Japan.
Artist Name: Ignatium Taschner
Media: Bronze; Base: Vermont Granite
Date Created: 1/1/1905
Location: Como Park
History: The sculpture, built in Berlin and donated by the German citizens of St. Paul, commemorates the renowned German philosopher, poet, and dramatist, Johann von Schiller. Born in 1759, to a military doctor, Schiller moved around as a child. He learned Latin and Greek from the pastor of Lorch and studied medicine at the Karlsschule Stuggart, where he wrote his first play. Because of this play, he became an honorary member of the French Republic; but in his hometown he suffered arrest and a severe warning not to publish any more works. Schiller later cultivated a friendship with Johann Wolfgang Goethe, and together they founded the Weimar Theater. He died at age forty-five from tuberculosis. Schiller’s enthusiastic optimism lives on as his works continue to encourage many Germans.
Artist Name: W.P.A. Handicraft District Three
Media: Glass and Metal
Date Created: 1/1/1937
Location: Como Zoo
History: Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1935, to help employ persons during the Great Depression. Through the WPA, people worked in their former occupation. Many employees built dams, roads, bridges, and more, while others worked in educational, scientific, or artistic jobs. Minnesota artists worked in many different media, including metal, painting, and pottery.
Artist Name: William Ordway Partridge
Media: Bronze w/ dark brown patina; Base: Mount Airy Granite
Date Created: 1/1/1907
Location: Summit Ave. at Portland
History: The Daughters of the American Revolution donated the statue in memory of the American patriot and hero of the Revolution, Nathan Hale. The first monument west of Ohio to honor the hero, this statue rests upon land donated in 1882, by M.J. Hannaford, Kenneth Clark, and W.J. Jean. In 1995, Public Art Saint Paul completely cleaned and restored the statue. After World War II, Lamont Kaufman revisited the battle fields of France where he had fought. In the Trenches of Bayonets he scooped up a boxful of earth. This earth now rests at the base of the statue.
Born in Connecticut in 1755, Hale attended Yale College when only thirteen years old. Once the Revolutionary War broke out, he joined the Connecticut militia. During the Battle of Long Island in 1776, he volunteered to report behind enemy lines on British movements because his school stood near the British encampment. After the Great New York Fire of 1776, the British arrested Hale and hanged him. He died twenty-one years old with the famous last words, “I only regret having one life to lose for my country.”
William Ordway Partridge, born in 1861, in Paris, descended directly from the Massachusetts Pilgrims. He attended the Adelphi Academy in Brooklyn and the Columbia University in New York before studying sculpture abroad. He wrote several works about aesthetics and art history, as well as writing poetry and verse novels. He took a professorship at the present-day George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Besides public commissions, he produced mostly portrait busts. Among his works are statues of Pocahontas, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Theodore Roosevelt, and a mounted Ulysses S. Grant. Partridge died in New York in 1930.
Artist Name: Carved by Louis Saint-Gaudens and designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens
Media: Bronze with patina
Date Created: 1890
Location: Summit Overlook Park
History: Louis Saint-Gaudens carved the eagle from marble and later made a bronze casting. The sculpture originally adorned the New York Life Building, which was razed in 1967, to make room for new urban development. From there the eagle found its way to the Pioneer Building when Watson Davidson purchased it. Between 1967 and 1999, the sculpture became the property of each new building owner. In 1999, Public Art Saint Paul secured the sculpture.
Born in 1848, in Dublin, to an Irish mother and a French father, Augustus Saint-Gaudens immigrated to New York with his family when he was six months old. He studied cameo cutting before he left to pursue art in Europe. The unveiling of his monument to Civil War Admiral David Farragut established his reputation. He also designed coins, including the twenty dollar double eagle, which today holds a value between ten thousand and several million dollars. He died of cancer in 1907. Louis Saint-Gaudens, his brother, assisted him with some of his sculptures.
Artist Name: Tivoli Too
Media: Bronze
Date Created: 9/21/03
Location: Landmark Plaza
History: These statues honor the Saint Paul native, Charles Schulz. For five summers after Schulz’s death in 2000, artists all over Saint Paul designed and displayed individual renditions of Peanuts characters. Over two million people from all fifty states flocked to this tribute to Schulz. The first year featured statues of solely Snoopy, the second Charlie Brown, the third Lucy, followed by Linus, and finally Snoopy with Woodstock. The proceeds from the past Peanut statue promotions have funded the Charles M. Schulz fund, established to create and maintain the bronze sculptures. Furthermore, the proceeds will fund scholarships for artists and cartoonists at the College of Visual Arts, the college Schulz attended and later served as an instructor.
Born in 1922 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Schulz grew up in Saint Paul. Drafted into the army in World War II, he served in Europe through 1945. When he returned to the United States, he worked for a Catholic comic magazine and taught art at Art Instruction, Inc. He also illustrated several comics other than Peanuts, but Peanuts proved the most popular. He moved to California in 1958, where he stayed until he died in 2000.
Tivoli Too started in 1980, as a custom design jeweler in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Over time, it acquired licenses to create many nationally recognized icons, and holds the only license to create Peanuts sculptures. From jewelry, Tivoli Too branched into small custom gifts and later set up a 3-D design and sculpture studio, specializing in licensed products. In the early 1990s, Tivoli Too expanded its repertoire to include custom designed large-scale pieces.
For a timeline on the life of Charles M. Schulz click here.
Artist Name: Harriet W. Frishmuth
Media: Bronze with light blue patina
Date Created: 1/1/1925
Location: Como Conservatory- Sunken Garden
History: In 1925, Harriet Frishmuth created this bronze sculpture in the Beaux-Arts Style, which is characterized by a lively naturalism reflecting the optimism at the turn of the century. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1880, Frishmuth pursued art in Paris, Berlin, and New York. She began sculpting bookends, ashtrays, and figurines and progressed to larger portraits of female dancers, often as fountains. In 1916, Frishmuth met Desha Delteil, a popular concert dancer, whom she used as a model for many of her most successful sculptures. Because of the Great Depression, she moved from New York back to Philadelphia. She received several awards before she died in 1980, in Connecticut, at the age of ninety-nine.
Artist Name: Lloyd, Mem, Geri Connelly, David Cole
Media: Wood, Metal, and Lexon
Date Created: 8/1/1998
Location: Phalen Poetry Park
History: This sculpture, situated in Phalen Poetry Park, displays poems of the Phalen Lake Elementary School students. The park was designed to look like a sleeping dragon with spikes of feather reed grass circling a dry pebble pond.
Connelly works at Avalon School as part of the staff. She has also taught art at the University of Minnesota, the Minneapolis Community and Technical College, the Blake School, and the North High School in North St. Paul. She often assists with public art projects.
Artist Name: Craig David
Media: Laminated granite and limestone, steel, concrete, garden plants
Date Created: 8/1/2004
Location: Parque De Castillo
History: The piece represents the mythological mother or queen of the immigrant families living in the West Side of Saint Paul. The different layers represent the vast ethnic diversity of the West Side, from the early Jewish to the present Hispanic community. The steel upright originally served as a tie beam on the old Wabasha Street Bridge. “This sculpture is an assemblage of laminated stone that abstractly and metaphorically represents the figure of the immigrant woman, and her heroism in coming to her new land.” David explains, “The concept of ‘The Queen of the Wandering Races’ came to mind from the poetry of Pablo Neruda. My hopes are that this art work will, over time, become an icon that represents the masses of immigrants and humanity that have moved through our community in the past, present and future.”
David graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1976, with a Bachelor of Science in Art Education and received from the University of Oregon his Master of Fine Arts in Painting. Presently he creates collaborative environmental site works, drawing on the culture of the people for whom he creates the piece. He lives in the West Side of Saint Paul.
Artist Name: Cliff Garten, Ta-coumba Aiken, Armando Gutierrez and Xiaowei Ma. Roberta Hill-Whitman, Soyini Guyton
Media: Different types of cut stone slabs and boulders with inscribed designs and poetry, in the midst of grass and trees on the edge of the Mississippi River. On tile mound shape with steel letters in stone.
Date Created: 1/1/1993
Location: Kellogg Mall Park
History: Started in 1991 and finished in 1993, this sculpture celebrates the one hundred fiftieth anniversary of Saint Paul. Ten artists working under the supervision of Cliff Garten collaborated to create this piece. Using both form and poetry, the Saint Paul Cultural Garden illustrates the tales of the immigrants, both past and present, who have created this city on the Mississippi. Through it, people from Africa, Central America, Europe, Southeast Asia, and Japan share their voices.
Garten received his Master of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design. He received his Masters of Landscape Architecture from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, where, among other places, he also worked as a visiting critic.
Artist Name: Unknown
Media: Sculpture: Bronze and cast iron, painted light green; Base: Concrete surrounded by limestone pieces. Basin: concrete.
Date Created: 1897
Location: Como Park
History: In 1897, Dr. Rudolph Schiffman, one of the original members of the Park Board, traveled to Barcelona, Spain, where he first saw the original fountain. Delighted with the sculpture, he ordered a replica for Saint Paul. The artist is unknown, but some believe he was French.
Dr. Schiffman also donated to Como Park the first Japanese Garden, which he purchased from Yukio Itchikawa at the 1904 World Fair in Saint Louis.
2018 Update: Recently, Parks and Recreation received a combined grant of $40,000 from the Berglund and Cedarwood Foundations to conduct a complete restoration of the sculpture. The current plan is to remove the sculpture this winter and transport it to the studio of conservator Kristin Cheronis, where the restoration will begin later this winter. If all goes well, the statue should be back in place about a year from now.
While the sculpture is being restored, Parks and Recreation will explore options to renovate the pool and multi-colored light system so the entire feature will be in great condition for years to come.
Artist Name: Designed by R.M. Fischer and fabricated by American Structural Steel
Media: Stainless steel and acrylic
Date Created: 1/1/2000
Location: Ecolab Plaza
History: The crystalline forms of Saint Paul’s historic ice palaces and garden gateway structures inspired Fischer with the design for Skygate, created for the “New Millennium” project in Saint Paul. The jewel-like blue acrylic sphere, which glows blue at night, refers to the water and the sky. The combination of the sphere and the stainless steel rings represent the infinity of time and space. Unfortunately, immediately after unveiling, the piece began to rust alarmingly until 2004, when it was treated to survive the harsh Minnesota weather.
Fischer often utilizes art, architecture, design, fashion, and technological elements in his sculptures. Many of his pieces incorporate unusual lighting elements.
Artist Name: Georgette Sosin
Media: Welded aluminum; Base: Concrete
Date Created: 5/1/1981
Location: Kellogg Mall Park
History: Born in Strasbourg, France, Sosin now lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She has exhibited her works in Saint Paul, New York City, and Paris. She has also won several state sculpture competitions.
Artist Name: John K. Daniels
Media: Bronze; Base: Vermont marble
Date Created: 1/1/1903
Location: Summit Park
History: In honor of Josias R. King, the first Minnesotan to volunteer to fight for the Union in the Civil War, the Grand Army of the Republic commissioned this statue, which commemorates all the brave soldiers of the war. It cost $9,000. King died on February 11, 1916, in Saint Paul, thirteen years after the dedication of the monument.
Daniels, a Norwegian-born sculptor in Saint Paul, has also created portraits of Senator Knute Nelson and Leif Erikson, as well as another Civil War monument in Arkansas. Dignitaries from both Minnesota and Arkansas (Governor J.A. Burnquist of Minnesota and General Christopher Andrews, commander of the Minnesota troops in Arkansas) attended the dedication ceremony for the latter on September 22, 1916. In 1901, he and his brother Hacon Daniels sculpted the dome of the Minnesota state capitol in butter. He won numerous awards and was decorated by the King of Norway.
Artist Name: Alonzo Hauser
Media: Bronze, opaque black over blue patina.
Date Created: 6/14/1965
Location: Rice Park
History: Hauser created this statue, donated by the Women’s Institute of Saint Paul, to combine the city's historical past with the contemporary spirit of the day.
Born in Wisconsin in 1909, Hauser established the art department at Macalester College, where he taught until 1949. He died in 1969.
Artist Name: Donald Shepard
Media: Concrete
Date Created: 5/25/1936
Location: Marjorie McNeely Conservatory North Garden
History: Originally placed in Como Park proper, the park moved the sculpture to the conservatory to protect it from vandalism.
Roman Catholics consider Saint Francis the patron saint of birds and aid to the poor. According to a famous legend, he even preached a sermon to the birds. Other legends tell of his fondness for animals. He also founded the Order of Friars Minor, known as the Franciscans.
Artist Name: Christine Bauemler
Media: Stone
Date Created: Unknown
Location: Swede Hollow Park
History: In 1841, Edward Phalen, the first European settler to the area, moved into the valley. In 1844, William Dugus bought Phalen's claim and built on Phalen Creek the first sawmill in Saint Paul. In 1865, the first train to Duluth chugged through the valley. Swedish settlers quickly moved in, naming the area Swede Hollow (Svenska Dalen). However, in 1956, the city Health Department discovered that Swede Hollow contained no sewer or city water service, so they condemned the area, moving out the families and destroying the houses. In 1973, neighborhood residents and the Saint Paul Garden Club commenced actions to create a park.
Bauemler presently teaches at the University of Minnesota. She has studied in Japan, she graduated Cum Laude from Yale University, and she received her masters from the Indiana University. She taught at the Gustavus Adolphus College from 1997 to 1999, when she moved to the College of Visual Arts. She has traveled widely, producing art based on her experiences. Her work currently reflects the effect of global climate disruption on rainforests, coral reefs, and the deep sea.
Artist Name: Zoran Mojsilov
Media: Stone and steel rod
Date Created: 1995
Location: High Bridge Park North
History: The neighborhood residents, at a loss for what to do with the stone left over from building the park walls, commissioned Mojsilov to create this sculpture from the leftovers. He crafted the piece over the summer of 1995.
Mojsilov a Yugoslavian-American born in Belgrade, Serbia, has created work found in Paris, New York, Massachusetts, and Minnesota. He now works in stone from his studio in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Artist Name: Tom Tischler
Media: Bronze with brown/green patina
Date Created: Unknown
Location: Como Zoo
History: This sculpture immortalizes Toby the Tortoise, a long-time favorite of Como Park Zoo visitors. Like the model, many visitors find the sculpture a favorite climbing and photographing attraction. This is one of fifty bronze Galapagos Tortoises created by Tischler; therefore, similar sculptures appear in zoos around the United States.
Growing up in Austin Texas, Tischler’s interest in animals took root at a young age. He has traveled extensively all over the world, including: Switzerland, Ethiopia, and Australia. He works primarily in bronze from his studio in Western Australia.
Artist Name: Philip Ricky and Jody Martinez
Media: Stone
Date Created: 2004
Location: Highland Park
History: Philip Rickey and city landscape architect Jody Martinez designed these sculptures, which consist of three stones, two as sentinels and one lying down as a bench. These adorn an overlook of the merging of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers and Fort Snelling. The site also narrates some history of the area. The Highland District Council, aided by funding from the federal scenic byways program, Saint Paul STAR, and Joseph and Jane Micallef, initiated this project. Rickey carved the stones and created the interpretive elements that map the history of this view.
Rickey, a Saint Paul based sculptor, served as a professor at the Gustavus Adolphus College from 1997 through 1998. He also designed the symposium site for the Public Art Saint Paul Minnesota Rocks!
Last Edited: September 24, 2025