New sculpture placed at Mark Twain Riverfront Park after six months of work

ELMIRA, N.Y. (WETM) — A new sculpture depicting Quarry Farm, Mark Twain’s summer home, is finished and was placed inside the Mark Twain Riverfront Park on Thursday.

After being approved in September, the sculpture has a final resting spot at the corner of West Water Street and North Main Street in downtown Elmira. The sculpture was the third proposal by the Elmira Public Art Commission, after a splash pad and then a fountain project were scrapped.

The city set aside $25,000 for the sculpture which came from funds awarded by the New York State Downtown Revitalization Initiative. The sculpture consists of stainless steel for the house and tree structures and cast bronze for the five books placed on the branches.

Sculptor and Elmira College Professor, Derek Chalfant, told 18 News that he wants the piece to create more awareness of literacy.

Previous Post: City of Elmira approves new sculpture at Mark Twain Riverfront Park

“The idea in part behind this is to create more awareness to literacy, in particular today’s youth,” Chalfant said “need more literacy in their lives despite the iPad influx and electronic devices that take us away from the foundation of our learning, and that’s essentially to take information in from a book,” he said.

Chalfant is more than happy to have another piece of his work put out for the public to enjoy and after 21 years of living in the area the area he’s proud to call the Elmira region his home.

“To have a piece of mine here on permanent display gives me great honor and I’m very thankful for support of people in the community and the arts,” he said.

Chalfant said that the project took around six months to complete as he first started planning the idea in late July before starting the metalwork in December. Chalfant told 18 News in September that he wanted the structure to be done by the end of 2023, but setbacks held the project till March.

Prior Post: New sculpture proposed at Mark Twain Riverfront Park

Chemung County Legislator Brent Stermer said that pieces like the Quarry Farm sculpture are more about having people learn and dig deeper into the history of the area.

“As people come here, and we want more and more tourists to come here, there’re more things that we can do to tell them and expose them,” Stermer said, “if you come into our airport you can sit on a bench and take a picture with Mark Twain when you come into downtown Elmira you can visit the study you can visit his gravesite, and you can begin to learn more about Quarry Farm and the importance of the things that happened,” he said.

Thursday’s placing of the sculpture isn’t considered the official unveiling of the project, with that coming at a different time.

Stermer said that they plan on holding a ceremony with everyone involved in the project when the weather gets warmer where they will be able to appreciate the sculpture more and hand out free books at the event to embrace the five bronze books sitting on the branches.

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