Thousands of visitors will be stopping in Phelps County this summer as Holdrege bronze sculptures and the Nebraska Prairie Museum were selected as a stop on the 2024 Nebraska Passport program.
The Holdrege Bronze Sculpture Tour, featuring 14 sculptures, and the museum are one of 70 stops across Nebraska to be placed on the 2024 tour. Passport visitors will pick up a sculpture tour map and receive their passport stamp at the museum. A digital sculpture tour guide will be available on the Discover 37 app.
The Nebraska Passport is sponsored by the Nebraska Department of Tourism and takes place between May 1-September 30, 2024. It is expected to bring more than 3,000 visitors to the area. The purpose of the Passport program is to help travelers discover Nebraska’s hidden gems, such as the Holdrege bronze sculptures and the Nebraska Prairie Museum.
Sheila Tringe, Citizens of Bronze Art committee member, and Micah Huyser, director at the Nebraska Prairie Museum, both applied to be stops on the program. The combined Holdrege stops were selected from more than 300 applications across the state.
Citizens for Bronze Art started in 2009 with a vision to acquire world-class bronze art from sculptors with roots in Holdrege to create a treasured showcase for their art in public places in the hometown.
As part of the tour, Tringe is working with Gnuse Video & Photo to create a video and audio tour of the bronze sculptures featuring Holdrege native sculptor George Lundeen, who has created many of the local sculptures. The video and audio tour will be available on the Discover 37 app.
“This is a way to share the unique bronze sculpture experience in Holdrege and to honor our four native artists and their world-class art,” Tringe said. “I hope the visitors will return to Holdrege and bring others to see our fair city.”
The artists who crafted the sculptures are George Lundeen, Mark Lundeen, Brad Pearson (now deceased), and Mike Sughroue.
“The unique thing about these four artists is that they all started in Louise Mulliner’s art class at Holdrege High School, they all grew up in Holdrege, and they all used Lundeen Studios for firing their work,” Tringe said. “They all remained friends and supported each other.”
The first life-sized bronze sculpture was Promise of the Prairie created by George Lundeen for Holdrege’s Centennial celebration in 1983. It is located in Holdrege’s North Park. In 2009, Citizens for Bronze Art formed to add more sculptures, and many donors have contributed to the bronze sculptures.
“Stuart Embury, current chair of the bronze art committee, and I would like to thank our hundreds of donors over the years who made donations to the Phelps County Community Foundation annually so that we could place these pieces in public places in Holdrege,” Tringe said.
Tringe said that Embury has led the committee to add many new sculptures to the collection and looks forward to placing the George Washington and Peacekeeper sculptures in the new Midtown Sculpture Garden once it’s complete.
Sheila also thanked the Phelps County Visitors Committee, the Phelps County Development Corporation, the Nebraska Prairie Museum and the Holdrege Area Chamber of Commerce for their support in making the tour possible for the Nebraska Passport this summer and to the HHS Class of 1966 for their support of bronze sculptures over the years.
For more information, visit www.nebraskapassport.com, visit37.com, holdregechamber.com, or nebraskaprairiemuseum.com.
