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July 8, 2007

On the trail: Painted colts attracting admiring attention in Terre Haute

By Arthur E. Foulkes

TERRE HAUTE — It may be an unusual sight for Terre Haute, people walking around downtown wearing summer clothes, snapping pictures and leading young children by the hands, looking — in short — like tourists.

But that’s what has been going on since the Sheldon Swope Art Museum’s “Horsing Around in Terre Haute” fund-raiser hit the sidewalks of the city and other parts of town in late June.

Several local businesses and organizations have sponsored fiberglass colts that have been decorated by Wabash Valley artists.

The 41/2-foot-tall colts are visible all around town and attracting admiring attention.

“I don’t think I’ve seen so much activity downtown,” said Mary Ann Michna, curator of the Swope Art Museum. “It’s bringing people to the city,” she said.

There are 30 fiberglass colts in total. The bulk of them are downtown, but many are outside the city at places such as the Terre Haute Heart Center, Union Hospital, Honey Creek Mall, the eastside Wal-Mart, Harmonious Hedgehog and Bunch Nurseries. “I think it’s just great,” said Ronnie Jeffers, who, with his wife, Sandie, had just finished snapping a picture of their granddaughter, Stella, in front of a colt on South Seventh Street. “It’s nice to see Terre Haute coming back,” Jeffers said.

Each of the colts has been designed by a local artist.

In some cases, sponsors provided their own artists. In other instances, the Swope selected designs, submitted by local artists, from which sponsors could choose.

Smith Barney, which sponsors a colt in front of its office at Fourth Street and Wabash Avenue, specifically requested local artist Becky Hochhalter to design the colt, titled “Greenback.” The colt is designed using images from a dollar bill, Hochhalter said.

“It was a lot of fun,” she said. To make it even more interesting, Hochhalter included some hard-to-find images, such as 18 horseshoes symbolizing Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning’s jersey number. There is also, just for fun, Hochhalter said, a parrot image hidden in the colt’s design. For some reason, kids can quickly spot the parrot while adults often can’t, she said.

Having a colt emblazoned with the Stars and Stripes outside the Old National Bank building at Seventh Street and Wabash Avenue has “created a bit of a buzz,” said Don Schroeder, region CEO and northwest region president for Old National Bank. Schroeder, who also sits on the board of the Swope Art Museum, has had to leave his office at least once to snap pictures of people who wanted to be photographed with the colt, he said.

“It’s great to see the enthusiasm,” he said.

Some people are seeing as many colts as they can, using a map provided by the Swope. Others are just walking around finding colts at random.

“It’s fun. It’s different,” said Steve Hardin, a reference/instruction librarian for Indiana State University. Hardin was out taking photos of downtown colts during his lunch hour Friday afternoon and had seen about 12 so far, he said.

Hardin said the colt outside Merrill Lynch on Fourth Street was interesting because it had an old-style stock ticker as a bridle.

“It also has bulls and dollar bills on it … I’m assuming there are no bears,” he said.

Several people have made special trips to the Harmonious Hedgehog south of town to see its sponsored colt, called “Summer Solstice,” said Lesley Wilson, who painted the colt and who works at the shop. One man brought his granddaughter to the store just to photograph her with the colt, she said.

A few of the colts come with 3-D features, such as one downtown that has a small train for a mane and a large black crow perched on its back.

Another colt with 3-D designs is at the eastside Wal-Mart. This colt, called “Colt goes to Camp,” has a backpack, small tennis shoes and a baseball cap.

“He’s a cool kid,” said JoAnne Perigo Fiscus, the artist who designed the camper colt. Perigo Fiscus, who is a member of the Wabash Valley Art Guild and an art teacher at Woodrow Wilson Middle School, has two sons so she was able to capture some of the look and feeling of a small boy going off to camp and what he would look like, if he were a colt, she said.

“I wanted him to have that sparkle,” Perigo Fiscus said.

Another Wabash Valley artist, Karen LeVan of Center Point, had her colt design, called “Colts Gone Wild,” selected by the Village Quarter. Her colt now stands outside the Village Quarter management offices next to a lawn jockey holding the colt by a bridle.

“I suppose he must have looked lonely,” LeVan said of her colt with a laugh.

The fiberglass colts are the centerpiece of a fund-raiser for the Swope Art Museum.

The image of a colt was selected because Terre Haute is home to the Indianapolis Colts training camp, Swope officials have said.

Area businesses and organizations had the opportunity to sponsor a colt for $2,000. For an additional $1,000, the business could purchase the colt; otherwise, the colts will be auctioned Sept. 8 at the ISU stadium. Only a few of the colts have been purchased by sponsors so far, the Swope’s Michna said.

“Working with the people at the Swope has been wonderful,” said Jackie Cossio, advertising and marketing director at Forrest Sherer Insurance downtown, where a colt titled “Smoky Cabin Fever” stands outside the business’s door. Customers and others have stopped to take pictures of the colt, which is designed with covered bridges and other “hometown” images, Cossio said.

Yzabel, an 8-year-old student at Community Christian School, is the third young child in a matter of minutes to be led by adults to a pair of colts at Seventh Street and Wabash Avenue on Friday afternoon. Her favorite colt, so far, was the ocean scene colt, titled, “Seahorse,” in front of First Financial Plaza downtown, she said.

While not necessarily a big fan of horses, Yzabel enjoys all the different colors on the colts, she said.

“It’s a natural attraction” to the colts, Michna said. People are making time to come to Terre Haute to see the different colts — in many cases seeing as many as they can in a single day. “It’s getting people out and around the city,” Michna said. “It’s almost like an Easter egg hunt.”

Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or at arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.

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