Recent Public Art Installation, Lardo Bridge, McCall, Idaho / by Susan Madacsi

The City of McCall, the McCall Arts and Humanities Council, and the Idaho Transportation Department partnered with Madacsi Studios to commission public artwork for the Lardo Bridge, which spans the outlet of beautiful Payette Lake. This project was made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Our Town program.

We worked closely with the City of McCall to engage the local community in the design process, encouraging comments and recommendations, giving a collective direction to the City’s final selection. Through public outreach—workshops for students, as well as public educational presentations and online surveys, we facilitated a collaborative approach to infusing an expression of the community’s relationship with Payette Lake into the artwork.

We took all that we had learned from spending time in this community—about who the people are, and what they value about where they live—back to our shop and we created a custom a design of forged steel and glass that represents each of the four seasons; their colors illuminated in glass and their elements forged in steel. Designed to withstand outdoor conditions with minimal maintenance, these four sculptures are comprised of 1.25-inch glass encased in powder coated 2-inch steel frames. Seasons was installed in September, 2019.