Early on Thursday morning, Sedona Arts Center facilitated the installation of two extraordinary bronze sculptures created by artist James Muir.  Caduceus and Children are the newest additions to Sedona’s public art experiences, and can now be seen in the small plaza between the Best Western Arroyo Roble Hotel and the Arts Center campus in Uptown.

“Our board and staff have been working with the artist, whose sculptures adorn public space across America, and we are thrilled position these James Muir works as new creative additions to the neighborhood,” says Eric Holowacz, Executive Director of the Arts Center. “We welcome the public to stop by and meet these new Uptown residents." 

Caduceus, the largest of the two sculptures, stands 12-feet high and has a 9-foot wide wingspan. The figure is striking and otherworldly, and provides a dramatic greeting to those heading into Oak Creek Canyon or arriving from that direction. The work gloriously transform the symbol of medicine, Caduceus, into a figure that the artist calls an Angel of Healing for our time. 

“She rises, like the mythical Phoenix heralding in a new era of harmony and peace, to heal the earth and all its inhabitants with love as the master physician,” explains Muir. 

The commanding sculpture has been generously loaned to the site owned by Phil Evans, Managing Member of Arroyo Roble Hotel and Creekside Villas. Another cast of Caduceus has been donated to the Sedona Art Museum for its new collection.
   
A second bronze sculpture, Children, was also installed on Thursday in a quiet corner of the same plaza. Standing under 5-feet tall, it has been gifted by the artist to the permanent collection of Sedona Arts Center. This special work depicts a young refugee girl, fleeing before the storm clouds of war, quietly giving comfort and reassurance to her own doll-child. The tender work reflects the innocence of children, filled with kindness and the hope of creating a better future.  A life size version of Children is also in the permanent collection of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Holocaust Museum in Poland.  

Arts Center board members Kathy Levin and Pam Frazier have been working on this project for the past few months, planning the details with City staff, lining up the installation crew, and finalizing the generous loan and gift from Linda and James Muir.  

“The Arts Center is so grateful for this partnership with the Muirs, and the opportunity to expand the creative environment we share in Sedona,” says Levin. “Together, these new public art works bring inspiration, provoke thought, and transform a simple plaza into an extraordinary place to experience art.” 

James Muir’s professional art career as a sculptor began in Sedona in 1980, where he has been a full time professional artist for over three decades.  He has completed 100 sculptures to date, with over 60 commissions and monumental installations across the country and abroad.  Muir describes his art as allegorical and filled with symbolic meaning.  In keeping with his deep spiritual convictions and social consciousness, Muir’s sculptural and philanthropic works reflect the critical nature of the times in which we live. His work is represented locally by the Goldenstein Gallery in Sedona.

“Thanks to the generosity of the Sedona Arts Center, Sedona Art Museum, and Phil Evans, I am deeply honored to have my sculptures Caduceus and Children in Uptown Sedona surrounded by the natural beauty that has inspired my art for nearly forty years,” Muir says. 

Allegorical Art is a term he uses to describe his sculptures, and his intentions to make art with layers of symbolic meaning. For most of his impressive career, Muir has done that from his studio and foundry in Sedona, creating an ever-expanding array of artistic meaning that speaks to the highest qualities of man and the triumphs of the human spirit.

City of Sedona Arts and Culture Coordinator Nancy Lattanzi, who also played a key role in facilitating the Uptown installations, had this to say:  “As a City animated by the arts, we work to build creative places. I was more than excited about the generosity of the Muirs, and establishing these two new Sedona public art experiences with the Arts Center. It was a pleasure helping expedite the process for two beautiful works of art that bring new creative life to our community.”