Butterfly Sculptures to Beautify Bound Brook

BOUND BROOK, NJ — London may have its Elephant Menagerie, Chicago its Cow Parade, Cincinnati its Pigs of Porkopolis ... but Bound Brook will soon have its own one-of-a-kind Butterfly Story Book Trail.

Starting in July, a borough-wide beautification project gets underway involving local artists and students as Bound Brook Cultural Arts Committee and Somerset County 4-H/Middle Earth Student Ambassadors for Community Health Club collaborate on the latest artistic assertion of Bound Brook's downtown growth.

The chief project objective is to rehabilitate Maltex Park, located at the corner of Vosseller and W. Main Street adjacent to the new Bound Brook Community Garden. A series of large, fiberglass butterfly sculptures will be created and placed along a Story Book Trail coursing through the town and ending at Maltex Park.

"Painted animal sculptures as a creative placemaking exercise are popular in cities around the world," says Bound Brook Council President and Cultural Arts Committee liaison Abel Gomez. "The butterfly was chosen as a symbol representing the rebirth of the park and the ongoing metamorphosis of Bound Brook itself."

Artists are invited to submit their own designs for a butterfly sculpture they will adorn "en plein air" — paint live during the July 13 Bound Brook Food Truck Festival at Billian Legion Park.

The butterfly design diagram and artist application must be received by this Friday, June 21, 2019; full details and application form are available at https://tinyurl.com/y5ruedtj; contact SACHButterflies@gmail.com for more information.

Butterfly Story Book Trail is the third round of civic improvement programs undertaken by Student Ambassadors for Community Health. Funded by New Jersey Health Initiatives, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation initiave, the youth team has enhanced traffic and pedestrian safety, installed a parklet, painted crosswalks and created murals at schools and recreation centers.

Beyond its beautification purpose, the Butterfly Story Book Trail is intended to attract young children to reading and walking, says project advisor Stephanie Moench, muralist and owner of Create HeART Studio in Bridgewater. "Public art can play many roles in a community, and we're hoping our local artists will lend their imagination and talents to this cause."