By now, you’ve probably seen the brightly colored bird sculptures across the Monroe-West Monroe area. During Spring Break (or anytime), load up the kiddos and take a ride. You could also find a nice route where several are clustered and take a walk, visiting local museums and restaurants along the way. Don't you want to see how many of the Herons on the Bayou you and your crew can see? In the meantime, read up here to learn more about how the project came about.
While Brooke Foy was attending college in Memphis working on her master’s degree, the city began work on a cool project: they started having local artists paint tigers to go around town at the local sponsored spots. She watched as artist friends painted these beautiful masterpieces on feline sculptures. Brooke wasn’t a painter at the time. She was, after all, working on her master's in sculpture. But when she moved to Austin, she noticed they had a similar project there. She put it in her mental Rolodex for her 10-year art plan when she moved back to Monroe in 2013.
Brooke wanted to do something in Monroe to shed light on the art community. She was working on other projects, so she moved the “painted sculpture” project up the list by a few years. In 2017, the initial grant was written through the Delta Regional Authority. The grant was received in 2018 and the project launched later in the year. And at that point, the “Herons on the Bayou” project began. Being the sculptor she is, Brooke created the initial heron model that was sent off. Unsure of how the community would take the herons project, the initial goal was somewhere between 25 and 50 birds. While Brooke wanted to ease into this with the community, she let it slip that she wanted to get close to 100 birds out. In the first reveal back in 2019, a total of 51 herons were brought to life by local artists with all sorts of designs.
The Reveal Celebration took place in June at Kiroli Park. Artists, sponsors, and the community at large got to see all 51 of those birds in the same location before they made their way to their homes. Each sponsor received a miniature version of a heron as a continuation of the project. Two short years later in April of 2021, the second batch of herons was revealed, this time on the banks of Bayou Desiard on the campus of the University of Louisiana Monroe. A total of 36 herons were presented to the community. This time, though, seventeen mini herons were painted, as well. These, however, were sold to add to the fundraiser.
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In just two reveal parties, Brooke and her partner in the project, Emery Thibodeaux, had brought joy through art to the community of Monroe and West Monroe. Eighty-seven birds were molded in fiberglass, legs, and bases welded to them locally, painted locally by local artists, clear coated locally, presented to the community, and planted locally at different sponsored locations. And it was all to benefit the Downtown Art Alliance, a local non-profit that hosts the Downtown Gallery Crawl. These herons have become local landmarks. Children and families frequently stop by to take pictures with them. They can be found all over the Twin Cities at parks, businesses, and schools. PREVIEW MAPS BELOW OR DOWNLOAD MAPS and COLOR SHEET.
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Brooke Foy is now an assistant professor of art at the University of Louisiana Monroe. She has been at it for eight years now. Welding, sculpting, and teaching art while also putting together amazing projects like Herons on the Bayou. When asked what her favorite part of the project is, she said, “It’s hard to pick one. But if I had to pick, it’s watching artists transform their two-dimensional ideas from paper into a three-dimensional bird.” The next round of herons will begin this fall and will be revealed to the public in 2023. For a map of all of the Herons on the Bayou and a downloadable color sheet, go “HERE”. For more information about the Herons on the Bayou Project, check out their Facebook page “HERE”.
