Have you noticed there are more sculptures downtown than there were in August? On Aspen Avenue, Mulberry and South Mesa Street, the pedestals and concrete pads that used to hold a handful of pieces now hold nine. The city's Sept. 18 update says the full set was installed that week.
What makes this fall different is how much of downtown is now designed for close looking. The sculpture program almost doubled. Every artist in it lives and works in the Grand Valley. The city's installation update names the artists without matching them to pieces, so the clearest way to learn what you're looking at is to hear it from the artists on Wednesday. Above Mulberry Plaza, the COOP Tower has new banners with flowers drawn by residents, plus a telescope for finding them.
From Five Spots to Nine
The HeArt of Fruita Rotating Art Sculpture Program has been around for several years, but it had always used the same small set of locations. At its Aug. 12, 2026 meeting, the Fruita Arts & Culture Board said the program had five sculpture locations and planned to add three or four more, for up to eight or nine sculptures in total. The installation report shows it went with the higher number.
The board's meeting minutes list these sites:
- The southeast corner of Mulberry Plaza, a concrete pad for larger pieces
- Three pedestals on Aspen Avenue in front of Visit Fruita and Kim's Auto, usually for smaller pieces
- The corner of the Circle and Aspen Avenue next to Town & Country Finance
- Two new concrete locations and a new pedestal on South Mesa Street
- The pedestal in the Dinosaur Journey parking lot next to the Bark Park
- The concrete pad in front of the FARM
Most of the new sites are the South Mesa Street spots. That's the same corridor where the city installed streetscape art this year and is now closing out project paperwork. The landscaping contractor there is covering plant replacements under a 12-month warranty. If South Mesa used to be the part of downtown you walked through on the way somewhere else, it now has three sculpture stops.
Who Made Which Piece
The city's Sept. 18 update names the six selected artists: Trevor Hall, Janene Cable, Ken Cable, Jeff Bates, Justin Squier and Randall May. That update doesn't say which artist made which work or where each one stands.
The placement process explains why the mix can look unexpected. The minutes say the board scored first and assigned spots afterward, based on each piece's size and site access, and that "placement is not tied to score rank." So a piece in front of the FARM didn't necessarily outscore one on a South Mesa pedestal. It may just have needed a concrete pad. Businesses next to each site saw the final selections and had a chance to raise concerns, and the board accepted public comment at its open meeting.
Each piece has a plaque with a QR code that links to the artist's website. That's the quickest way to identify one on your own. The other way is to attend Wednesday's walk, which the program built in on purpose. The board's minutes say selected artists are invited to the October walk to talk with the community about their work.
A Roster Made Entirely in the Grand Valley
The board reviewed 17 submissions, and every one came from a Grand Valley artist. Each also got the program's automatic one-point local bonus. Board members scored each piece from 1 to 5 on artistic quality, site fit and context, community identity, durability, safety, public accessibility and accurate representation. Every selected artist receives a $1,000 honorarium, and the piece stays on display downtown for one year.
You may already know some of these names from Grand Junction's Main Street. Art on the Corner lists Fruita artist Trevor Hall's steel piece "Backwoods Blues" and Jeff Bates' mild-steel "The Bird Watcher." Both come from earlier Grand Junction exhibits, not the Fruita lineup. Bates says he works in reclaimed metal, makes larger public pieces and park benches, and has lived in Fruita since 1998. In an interview with Shoutout Colorado, Justin Squier describes his main body of work as sculptural wall pieces built from found objects, mixing reused vintage and modern items. Randall May is the artist behind "Been Through the Desert on a Horse," which the Daily Sentinel covered in its sculpture series.
Those credits tell you about each artist's style. They don't tell you what any of them put on a Fruita pedestal this year. The artists will cover that themselves on Wednesday.
The Tower Now Has Residents' Flowers and a Telescope
The same push toward close looking shows up above Mulberry Plaza. For decades, two banners have hung from the COOP Tower. After years of wear, the city replaced them, and local artist Andrea Downs was chosen to design the new ones through a formal selection process.
One banner, "The Cyclist," includes references to the Colorado National Monument, McInnis Canyons and the Colorado River. The other shows "Greta the Dinosaur," the dinosaur at Circle Park, surrounded by flowers that residents made at community events this summer. Those drawings were digitized and worked into the final design. Greta has her own history. Before Circle Park, she stood outside the Dinosaur Store under the name Dinny.
From the ground, it's hard to pick out any one flower on a tower banner. That's the reason for the new telescope at Mulberry Plaza. The city installed it so people can study the smaller details and find the community-made flowers. Before Fruita, the telescope was used at the Empire State Building from 1991 to 1997. Lodging tax paid for the banners and the telescope. That's money from overnight visitors, which the city puts back into projects for residents and visitors alike. The city's announcement has the full project background. The unveiling was Sept. 25, so the telescope is open to use now.
If you drew a flower at one of those summer events, Mulberry Plaza is where you can go look for it.
Wednesday's Walk, Stop by Stop
The HeArt of Fruita Art Walk is Wednesday, Oct. 14, at 5:30 p.m. The city calendar lists it as free. The group meets in the FARM parking lot at 160 S Park Square for treats and soft drinks, then walks downtown to each sculpture and hears from the artist who made it. The notice doesn't list a route. Using the board's list of sites, an evening downtown could look like this:
- The FARM, 160 S Park Square. Check in, get a drink, and see the sculpture on the concrete pad out front.
- South Mesa Street. The two new concrete sites and new pedestal, set among this year's streetscape art.
- Circle Park and Aspen Avenue. The corner piece next to Town & Country Finance, with Greta nearby.
- Aspen Avenue pedestals. Three smaller works in front of Visit Fruita and Kim's Auto.
- Mulberry Plaza. The large southeast-corner piece, then the telescope for a look at the tower banners.
- TBR Book Bar, 242 S. Mulberry St. A short walk from the plaza if you want to keep the evening going.
The Dinosaur Journey lot by the Bark Park is the farthest site from the others, so it may or may not be on the walking route.
TBR is downtown's newest place to sit down. Longtime Fruita resident Brandy Remy opened it as a bookstore, coffee bar and beer and wine spot with a self-serve wine station. KJCT reported the grand opening was set for Oct. 3. During soft opening, it was open until 9 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and until 7 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday. If the regular schedule matches those soft-opening hours, a Wednesday walk would end close to closing time. The Business Times notes that TBR also has lounge seating, a small meeting room you can reserve, coffee and drinks for non-drinkers, and Grand Valley wines.
A Year to Keep Looking
Some of the streets you'll walk have been recently redone. The city finished paving and striping Maple Street after the sewer project and planned to reopen it around midday before Fall Festival, with pedestrian crossing beacons expected later in 2026. The next big downtown evening is Trick or Treat Street, Friday, Oct. 30, from 3 to 6 p.m.
Because each sculpture gets a one-year display, this lineup stays on its pedestals and pads through next fall. That leaves plenty of evenings to scan the QR codes, compare the South Mesa pieces with the ones on Aspen, and check whether your favorite looks different in winter light.
Public art is part of what makes a block feel like home, and the details that make downtown Fruita worth walking matter to us too. If you're thinking about a home within walking distance of the FARM or Mulberry Plaza, or you'd like to know how a nearby amenity like this shows up when you sell, Kelly Maves and The Maves Group are happy to walk it with you. Start Your Move with Maves.
