Sculpture acknowledging indigenous land planned for James Sharp Landing in Sharpsburg

An Etna man who grew up skateboarding and kayaking at James Sharp Landing in Sharpsburg soon will have a work of art installed at the renowned Allegheny River launch site.

Found and Forged owner Jimmy Olson is working on a metal sculpture as part of a community project to acknowledge the indigenous land.

It’s part of a partnership with local nonprofit Artspiration and assisted by the Council of Three Rivers American Indian Center.

“I don’t paint or anything, but I’ve always been artistic,” said Olson, a 2003 Shaler Area grad. “I’ve pretty much done every construction trade you can do growing up. Then I taught myself how to weld. It just kind of accidentally became a career. … I really like creating something from close to nothing.”

Olson was tapped by friend Nanci Goldberg, founder and director of Artspiration and founder and owner of Ketchup City Creative in Sharpsburg, to do something special for the borough.

The result is a sculpture nearly 10 feet tall and about 5 feet wide that signifies crossed canoe oars and honoring the bald eagle. It’s expected to weigh between 150 and 200 pounds and will be placed near the kayak rental area.

Goldberg said she has known Olson the past few years and have been in talks to do a project for quite some time.

“He is a very talented artist with metal and sculpture,” she said. “Artspiration has a mission to be a catalyst for community, creativity and connection in the riverfront communities of Sharpsburg, Etna and Millvale through the arts. Artspiration has a focus on community resilience, inclusivity, dignity and well-being.

“Public art projects and events that center around place-making and place-keeping are seen as priorities to our organization as both concepts help inspire community pride.”

The pair worked with Miguel Sague Jr. of the Council of Three Rivers American Indian Center to ensure what look would be appropriate and research who was on the land.

“It’s extremely important because you want to make sure that you’re saying things correctly,” Goldberg said. “You want to make sure you have the right tribe and give credit.”

The sculpture will come with a plaque noting Sharpsburg rests on the traditional lands of the Seneca Nation, Onöndowa’ga “People of the Great Hills,” part of the great Iroquois Confederacy.

“We honor and respectfully acknowledge the original ancestors of this land. Connecting the past, present and future,” the proposed plaque’s message reads in part.

Olson thanked Sague for his input.

“I’m really honored because we live here on their land, and everybody kind of acts like we don’t and gives zero acknowledgment of it,” Olson said.

Council unanimously voted in favor of the project Aug. 22.

The project is at no cost to the borough and was approved by its parks and recreation committee.

An unveiling is scheduled for noon Sept. 28.

Mayor Kayla Portis will be a part of the ceremony. She helped to oversee the land acknowledgement.

“It will be a beautiful addition to our borough,” Portis said. “Acknowledging nature, the land and a native animal, is very important for many reasons: environmental, social and tradition practices, children’s development and maintaining resources.”

More about the artist

When he’s not making art, Olson does custom fabrication. He mainly does residential work such as spiral staircases, furniture, railings and gates.

He worked as a fabricator for Deeplocal, a Pittsburgh-based business with designers and engineers, for five years before launching his own business in 2019.

“The biggest part of what I do that I don’t like is a lot of my work never gets seen,” Olson said. “I do a lot of high-end residential work, and a lot of people don’t want you taking photos in their houses. I used to work for Deeplocal, and I loved it there but everything was trade shows. You pour months of your life into a project, and it’s only displayed for, like, two days or a week sometimes. I never had a project with a sense of permanency.”

The James Sharp Landing piece will be Olson’s first public installation.

“I’m so nervous,” he said. “I used to skateboard as a kid down on 13th Street. Now I’m going to have a sculpture down there. I would have never thought that. It’s nice. It’s like full circle. It’s kind of crazy.”

The sculpture was supported in part by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Artspiration was able to secure a Creative Communities Cultivation grant from the council to help pay for a mural in Sharpsburg’s business district and now the sculpture.