Thorsen wins Peoples Choice award for sculpture

Local artist Eric Thorsen recently received a People’s Choice award from the 2014 City Art Walking Sculpture Tour in Mankato, Minn., for his sculpture of green sea turtles. 

The sculpture also won Best of Show in the bronze category. 

Residents in the city vote for the People’s Choice award, and the city purchases the winning piece.

The City Art Walking Sculpture Tour displays artists’ sculptures for one year. 

Thorsen said winning a people’s choice award is meaningful because you don’t know who all got involved with it.

“People just get excited about something, they’re not necessarily critics,” he said. “That’s something I appreciate. It’s fun.”

While the sculpture will stay in Minnesota, there is another green sea turtle sculpture which holds a glass tabletop in Thorsen’s gallery on Electric Avenue.

The gallery will be open during the Holiday Art Walk on Saturday.

In addition to Thorsen’s work the gallery also features work from Beck Eiker.

Eiker’s statue of a newsboy, “Extra! Extra!,” that was installed on the Helena Downtown Walking Mall in 1999 and Bob Morgan’s painting, “Read All About It!” based on that statue will provide an historic backdrop during the Holiday Art Walk to support a new home for the Montana Historical Society. 

The Becky Eiker Foundation and the Eric Thorsen Gallery have teamed to support the Montana Heritage Center. A table will be manned by Society staff at the Eric Thorsen Gallery on the night of the walk where anyone who donates $100 or more to the Montana Heritage Center Campaign will receive a special edition limited to 250 signed and numbered copies of Morgan’s “Read All About It!” 

In addition, 50 percent of the purchase of any of Eiker’s bronzes at the Eric Thorsen Gallery will also be donated to the campaign. “Read All About It!” notecards that have 10 in a pack for $24 will also be available to benefit the Heritage Center. 

The Eiker statue is a tribute to “the faithful newsboys who sold their papers on these street corners, bringing the latest news to the people of Helena.” Morgan was one of those newsboys in his youth and delivered papers in the area. 

“We are thankful for the support of the Montana Heritage Center project that Becky Eiker, the Eric Thorsen Gallery and Bob Morgan are demonstrating,” MHS director Bruce Whittenberg said. “As a former newspaper publisher, I appreciate what this stands for and the enthusiasm for the future that it portrays.” 

The prints and the 50 percent of proceeds from the purchase of any Eiker bronze will continue to be offered at the Eric Thorsen Gallery after the Art Walk. The Becky Eiker Foundation will match all $100 donations made during this promotion.