Homage To Hoagy

Client: City of Carmel, Indiana

Completed: 2020

Location: City Center Drive and 3rd Street

Artwork Budget: $450,000

BoMar Industries

Associated Controls + Design

Hagerman Construction

Zounds Sound Design

Great American Songbook Foundation

“Homage To Hoagy” celebrates the life and work of Indiana native, Hoagy Carmichael. The Oscar-winning composer, pianist, singer was recently inducted into the Great American Songbook Hall of Fame; the latest of many accolades and honors he has been awarded for his contributions to American music and the silver screen.

Commissioned in 2018 and installed in 2020, the project features a thirty-eight-foot-tall sculpture located on a roundabout outside the City of Carmel’s Center for The Performing Arts. The artwork is inspired by the songwriter’s lyrics and the timeless impact his work and includes abstracted stars, moons and musical notes that burst joyfully from a tilted gramophone horn. Hidden among them is a single skylark, a reference to the title of one of Carmichael’s famous compositions. The structure of stainless and silver and gold powder-coated steel sits on an Indiana limestone base and is illuminated from within at night by hidden light sources of colored light. The project includes two interactive, information kiosks installed on sidewalks nearby. Echoing the artwork, they are styled on vintage gramophones and feature crank handles that activate over a dozen digital recordings of well-known Carmichael compositions by famous artists, old and new, including Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, the Four Freshmen, Bette Midler and Michael Bublé.