LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A service station might be the last place you'd expect to find a stunning sculpture but right outside of Kum & Go Marketplace at Chenal and Wellington Hills in West Little Rock, stands an ampersand adorned with paintings of some of Little Rock's favorite spots.
Little Rock native, Carter Cole, recently visited the Marketplace for the first time and instantly fell in love with the art.
“I think it’s a really cool, unique idea that I think symbolizes Little Rock altogether very well by putting multiple natural historic things on there,” he said. “I really like the Central High School painting because it’s one a lot of people don't really think of still when they think of the big things in Little Rock but it’s such a historic site.”
Little Rock Kum & Go Marketplace's General Manager, Leslie Rachel, said the community response to the art has been incredible.
“We have seen a lot of fun engagement with the community with people taking selfies and asking the story behind where we get the artists commissioned and the story behind how we choose the things that are on the ampersand.”
So what is the story behind it?
Kum & Go corporate creates unique, community-driven ampersands for select locations in the 11 states where they have stores. Little Rock was chosen as a select community for the art. Kum & Go's corporate offices worked with Little Rock city officials including Special Projects Administrator, Scott Carter, to get ideas for what places to highlight.
“They first gave us a list of about 20 different events, people, or places they might include and we looked through that list and had a couple suggestions for things they didn’t include,” he said. “They didn't have Central High on the list so we wanted to include that for sure.”
Kum & Go Communication Specialist, Amy Day, said that after they finished working with the City of Little Rock, Kum & Go commissioned their artistic team in their corporate headquarter city of Des Moines, Iowa. All sculptures are created by local artists from the Des Moines studio “Sticks” and they have a very distinct style.
“They use the same style in all the ampersands so they have a consistent feel,” said Day. “On the back of all the statues we have our [Kum & Go] corporate values.”
Day said Kum & Go is hoping the fiberglass masterpiece will help encourage community pride.
“When you see that sculpture, we want you to feel it represents your community,” said Day.
City administrators are hoping to see more art pop up like this across Little Rock.
“The more that things like this pop up across the city, the better it is for everyone,” said Carter.