Hurray for Bistro Market — they really know how to tend “the garden.” The Garden is a public art installation created by Jennifer and Nathan Falter of Springfield Pottery and installed in 1999 with the help of the former Springfield Program for Public Art.
The Garden is a massive piece of work composed of thousands of fragments of recycled tile donated by ACME Brick. For many years, it stood alone in the back parking lot of Wheelers Furniture on the corner of South Avenue and Walnut.
Although the Falters designed the mural in pieces in case it ever needed to be moved, when PriceCutter took over the lower floor of the building and opened the Bistro Market this summer, they not only kept the mural in place — they added a concrete patio, public seating, and an information plaque with the history of the artwork.
While making the mural, the Falters said they believed the creation of the piece paralleled the renewal of downtown Springfield, both physically and spiritually. Having opened Springfield Pottery just one year before, they indeed had their finger on the pulse of the arts community and remain big contributors to its vitality.
Springfield Pottery is a community clay center at 416 S. Campbell that offers ceramic arts classes for children and adults, visiting artist workshops, a residency program, a traveling educational Claymobile, a fine art gallery and changing exhibitions.
The Bistro Market is specialty store offering a food bar for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, a Starbucks, Gelato Bar, bulk foods, fresh flowers, liquor, and bistro to-go.
Kudos to Bistro Market by Price Cutter for finally recognizing such an amazing piece of art in our beautiful downtown! Gosh, it only took…what…11 years for some recognition. The design is so amazing. The Falters really did a wonderful job on brightening up the downtown.