The Carrack Opens Tonight

Durham artist John Wendelbo is opening his fund-raising headquarters/art gallery, The Carrack, tonight at 111 Parrish Street for the Durham Sculpture Project.  From this space, Wendelbo intends to further his public sculpture project to build Dionysys, a 35 foot-tall publicly-funded sculpture that will be donated to the city for installation upon completion, as well as establish Durham as a large-scale sculpture construction and viewing destination.  The project will create permanent jobs and materials from this project will also generate other pieces, as well.  There is a larger social narrative to his project that is detailed here.

Tonight's event is not open to the public, but the gallery will be open this weekend from 1 to 4 PM each weekend day.  The opening exhibition will feature works by many local artists presenting work in a variety of formats from two dimensional to digital projection.  For the culturally inclined, this is not a show to miss.

Wendelbo, a French ex-patriot who came to the US to build Frank Stella's landmark sculpture The Prince of Hamburg, came here after years in New York because Durham is the sort of open and artistic community where he and his wife could raise a family.  He works at Carolina Bronze in Seagroves, NC, a nationally recognized foundry whose statue of Ronald Reagan is to be unveiled at the US Embassy in London on July Fourth.

The gallery name is a reference to the type of sailing ship used by the Portuguese and Spanish for exploration voyages. Wendelbo considers his project in a similar light.

Normal hours for the gallery are 4 to 8 PM Tuesday to Friday.  Art is for sale and the general public is encouraged to visit after tonight's opening event. According to Wendelbo, the space will be available to rent for private events, as well.

Durham Sculpture Project

Durham's arts scene is arguably on the brink of reaching a critical mass. Events such as Third Friday and the bi-annual Art Walk, now in its twelfth year, continue to grow in popularity. The Durham Art Walk Spring Market featured more than 200 talented artists at sites throughout downtown Durham and was attended by an estimated 10,000 visitors. Durham is home to a plethora of galleries, studios and museums with Golden Belt and the Nasher Museum anchoring the arts community.

In typical Durham fashion, a visionary thinker has come forward with an ambitious plan to foster community development, this time, with the arts in mind. John Wendlebo has launched the Durham Sculpture Project, a community arts project which aims to foster socio-economic development in Durham's arts community through the creation of a large scale, high impact sculpture. The Durham Sculpture Project flagship is a 35 ft tall sculpture to be built in Durham under the non-for-profit umbrella of the New York Foundation for the Arts. The sculpture itself will become a high visibility attraction and a focal piece for Durham arts. Additionally, the project will create jobs in the community for artisans and engineers and build upon existing efforts to revitalize downtown Durham.

Wendlebo's vision for the impact of such a project runs much deeper than simply creating a massive work of art. The Durham Sculpture Project will also host a gallery space which will house the Project's fund raising headquarters, permanent exhibit space and short rotation exhibits. From that space, Wendlebo hopes to develop an arts incubator for new ventures and concepts.

Born in France, Wendelbo is a Durham-based artist specializing in sculpture and digital art. He has worked as a designer, fabricator, project engineer and project manager on large scale projects which have appeared in the National Gallery in Washington, DC, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the US Embassy in London and the Regan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, CA.