Naperville United Way announces summer art fundraising campaign

The Naperville Area United Way is planning a Garden Party this summer and it's inviting some rather unusual guests of honor -- including an assortment of colorful ladybugs, dragonflies, frogs and maybe even butterflies.

It's all part of the group's annual outdoor public art project that aims to raise more than $100,000 for United Way charities while providing an enchanting diversion for downtown visitors between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Details of this year's exhibit -- which will feature those oversized insects and frogs -- still are being worked out, Executive Director Susan Fritz said Wednesday, but should be finalized next week.

Drawings of the proposed Fiberglas sculptures likely will be made public by Jan. 23 and sponsor packets will be available by Jan. 25.

Fritz said most of the featured creatures will be incorporated into pieces designed to look at home in people's gardens. The frog, for example, may look like a chair; the dragonfly may be attached to a bench; another creature could be part of a playhouse or birdbath.

Organizers plan to offer three or four sculpture options, she said, with a total of roughly 40 pieces.

This is the eighth year the United Way has made sculptures available for companies or individuals to sponsor, decorate and put on display for the summer. All the pieces are collected in mid-September for the agency to put up for auction.

The program started in 2001 with the Baby Giraffe Walk and exceeded expectations.

Since then, each auction has netted more than $100,000 with the exception of 2006, when the agency's Mystical Dragons campaign flamed out and fell short.

The lesson from that auction was that while the dragons were delightfully whimsical, they also were a little too big and bold to fit easily into most would-be-bidders' landscapes.

Last year, the United Way went with smaller pieces with an Under the Sea theme and Fritz said it will continue in that vein this time around.

"We really tried to listen to everyone about what they want," she said.

The artists who decorate the works, for instance, want sculptures that aren't incredibly detailed and offer a broad canvas for their creativity. Merchants and sponsors want pieces that attract the largest possible crowds and produce foot traffic for their businesses. And the folks who buy the statues want something that slips easily into their garden.

"We wanted pieces that would appeal to kids but be sophisticated enough to appeal at auction," Fritz said.

Organizers said they think this year's sketches by the designers at Cowpainters of Chicago meet all those criteria in creative ways.

This year's campaign will be headed by co-chairwomen Debbie Rigdon and Maureen Baier, both longtime residents who have experience handling auctions for Naperville-based Little Friends Inc.

"They're both very organized women with great leadership skills," Fritz said.

The sculptures probably will begin appearing the week before Memorial Day and be taken down shortly before Labor Day. The auction traditionally has been held the second Friday in September, but organizers said this year's may be pushed back a week to avoid competition with the Riverwalk Art Fair and a wine festival.

Fritz said the campaign is running a little behind previous years' schedules, but organizers want to make sure to get it right.

"We're now seen as an annual event in Naperville and as a good economic thing for downtown," she said. "It's a win-win for everyone."