Bok Read's Two-Story Eiffel Tower Set for Media Arts Council's Bastille Day Celebration

When a call came from The Media Arts Council just six weeks ago, making a seemingly impossible request of local woodworker Bok Read to create a sculpture of the Eiffel Tower for Media's upcoming Bastille Day celebration, Read did not hesitate. "I can do it," he told MAC Executive Director Judy Fowler.

Read, of Media, has been creating art from wood for over 50 years and felt certain he was up to the challenge. True to his word in only one month Read sculpted an impressive, 2 story La Tour Eiffel from rich, Western red cedar, now sitting in his Middletown Twp. backyard as he puts on the finishing touches in preparation for tomorrow's July 13th event.

Before he began the process of cutting, bending and laminating his wooden sculpture, it was important for Read to learn as much as he could about the iconic metal structure, designed and built by Gustave Eiffel for the 1889 World's Fair in Paris. He immersed himself in the monument's history and engineering. "He has been absolutely consumed by this project. It's been hard to get his attention for almost anything else these past weeks," laughs Read's wife Karla.

Read's 28 foot version of the Eiffel Tower will be the centerpiece for Media's 7th annual Bastille Day festivities, a popular community street fair sponsored by the Media Arts Council and the Media Business Authority, that will feature a reenactment of the storming of the Bastille, an Artist's Village, children's activities, café style dining and dancing in the streets.

According to Robin Beaver, Co-President of the Media Arts Council, "Bastille Day celebrates not only political freedom but artistic freedom as well. It's an opportunity for people to take in the amazing work of Delaware County artists and a fun night for families and neighbors to enjoy music and good food together". For Loic Barnieu, the owner of La Belle Époque Restaurants and the driving force behind Media's Bastille Day, the wooden Eiffel Tower brings a small piece of his native France to the town he now calls home. "It is beautiful. People will be amazed to see this on the streets of Media."

You can view Bok Read's Eiffel Tower on Saturday, July 13th from 6pm at Veteran's Square and Jasper Streets in Media. It will be formally dedicated at 7pm by the Hon. Michael E. Scullin, Esq. Consul of France in Philadelphia & Wilmington. The Hedgerow Theater's re-creation of the storming of the Bastille is on the main stage, State and Olive Streets, at 6:30. Musicians include the Trolley Stoppers and Dean Maola 6-6:30, strolling troubadours Pat Warn and Brian Kors as well as jazz by Russell Gelman-Sheehan 7-8:30. On the main stage, starting at 8:30, "The VooDUDES" will be playing their brand of Zydeco, funk, blues, boogie-woogie, honky-tonk, and other party music. Dancing and dining under the stars lasts until around 10:30. Admission is free.

For more information visit www.mediaartscouncil.org.

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