Kids - big and small - climbed on the sculpture after Saturday's event. (David Boraks photo)

(Updated Wednesday, 3:15 p.m.)

At Saturday’s dedication of the town’s first public art sculpture, “A Bouquet for Davidson,”  kids and grownups couldn’t wait to get close to the 15-foot steel creation by artist Andy Dunnill.  But even as they climbed, nervous bystanders could be heard whispering about potential dangers. This morning brings a not-unexpected announcement from Town Hall: “Bouquet” is off-limits for climbers.

“Our insurance company is advising us that nobody should climb on the sculpture,” town spokeswoman Sara-Lynne Levine said Wednesday. “We want to make sure nobody gets hurt.”

It’s still OK to touch the work, though.

Mr. Dunnill, a British-born sculptor and professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro said in an email message Wednesday, “I anticipated this. … Nobody wants a kid to fall and hurt themselves, nor do they want to be held liable for such an unfortunate accident should it occur.”

He said he found it “very satisfying” that some people had a chance to “scrump on the sculpture” at Saturday’s dedication. “It is after all one of my favorite parts of the making process,” he said. But he added, “From now on, they will have to simply look and touch. When all is said and done, the town commissioned a sculpture, not a jungle gym.”

Cort Savage, a sculptor and member of the Davidson Public Art Commission, said it might be ideal to allow climbing on the sculpture, but caution is necessary. “No one wants anyone to be injured. This step, although unfortunate, was always a possibility,” he said Wednesday.

“I guess the children present at the reception should count themselves lucky and the rest of us will have to keep our enthusiasm contained to looking and and touching,” he added.

Mr. Dunnill has said previously he hopes people will interact with his creation.

In an interview in his studio as he was building the work in January he said, “People interact with public art in lots of different ways. I anticipate that they’re going to want to, certainly, touch it, which is great, ’cause that’s one thing you can’t do in a museum and you can’t do in a gallery, which always frustrates me.”

“There are so many sculptors out there that really want people to interact with their work in a physical way, and feel that they can touch the work or lie on it or sit on it or whatever. That’s fine. Or simply just walk around and enjoy it visually. That’s why I put work in public. … It’s an experience with sculpture that you can’t get to have in a more institutionalized setting,” he said.

Whether you touch it or not, many folks in Davidson are still contemplating the work. In an interview Saturday, Mr. Dunnill said he doesn’t want to interpret the piece for viewers.

“I don’t want people to have any preconceptions about what it should be. I want them to bring to it their own experience and their own imagination,” he said. “I’m effectively making a catalyst. Here’s an object: How does it relate to you? That’s the dialogue.”

PREVIOUS COVERAGE

April 26, 2009, “New sculpture prompts admiration and questions.”

Feb. 11, 2009, “Town’s first public art sculpture nears completion.” Includes a short video visit to Mr. Dunnill’s studio, and his comments about how he hopes people will interact with his work.