PROSPECT HARBOR, Maine (NEWS CENTER)-- The fifth Schoodic International Sculpture Symposium is underway in Prospect Harbor, where artists from around the world are creating seven different granite sculptures from Maine-sourced stone to be placed in seven towns around Maine.
The symposium was started 10 years ago by Maine-based stone sculpture Jesse Salisbury as a bi-annual event. This year, 200 artists from 52 countries submitted applications. The seven chosen were from the United States, the Republic of Georgia, South Korea, and Switzerland.
Salisbury created the event as a sort of celebration of Maine's rich resources and stone carving history.
He said, "We have this great history of carving stone in Maine, but nothing was really left for the towns where all this stone came from. So the idea was to bring artists from around the country and around the world to use the local materials and create a history of art that hasn't been created before."
The symposiums rely on donated and fund raised money in order to operate. Seventy tons of granite was donated to this year's project by several Maine quarries. The plan was to hold five symposiums over 10 years, making this year the last scheduled symposium. However Salisbury and his team hope to hold more events like this one in the future.
