October crane sighting at the Center?

Yes, we had a crane sighting right here! As the sandhill cranes are making their way to their wintering grounds south in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico, and we now have a six foot tall crane that has been donated to the Center and will become a permanent resident. We are delighted to have "The Heart of the Platte" donated to the Center by Roc A Dent, Inc.. Artist Heidi Muirhead and her husband Rob wanted a place that people could enjoy the crane for years to come.

We will feature the crane in our Horniday Art Gallery located at the front portion of the NNVC building. The crane can be moved around to compliment different events that we host at the Center.

Artist Heidi Muirhead and "The Heart of the Platte"


The crane was created as part of the Cranes on Parade event held in Kearney Nebraska. It is a fundraiser held by the Dawn ROTARY club also of Kearney, Nebraska. Hit the jump

The Following comes from the Cranes on Parade description of Heidi's crane:

Heidi Muirhead is a native Nebraskan, born in Lincoln. She has resided in Kearney since 2001 and has been employed with Good Samaritan Hospital System since 2005, currently the Marketing Manager at Central Nebraska Home Care. Heidi has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Montana and is currently pursuing an advanced creative writing degree at the University of Nebraska, at Kearney.

Her artistic focus has evolved since Heidi was old enough to finger-paint and mold mud pies. Inspiration for her current focus on stained glass and hot glass is attributed to Bethel Lutheran Church in Holdrege where Heidi was baptized and attended as a small child. Lengthy sermons do not impress small children, so Heidi spent the blessed twenty minutes marveling at the magnificence of the hand crafted stained glass windows in the towering sanctuary.

Heidi has also worked in pottery and clay sculpture, as well as watercolor and acrylic paint. Her passion is for artistic endeavors are projects which are larger than life, such as decorating a blank form for this public art project, Cranes on Parade II.

When Heidi received the application for the project her first thought was to apply a fused glass mosaic design in hand-cut and hand-fired glass. Glass arrived by UPS in 12” x 12” sheets ordered via the internet. Each piece was cut, washed, and placed on thin-fire shelf paper in a glass kiln for a period of 12 to 14 hours up to 1450 degrees Fahrenheit. After removing the 175-180 pieces per firing the tiles were washed, counted, and bagged. The kiln was fired continually for the duration of the project. Each piece of glass was then individually glued to the crane form, taking care to create lines which enhanced the finished design. After thousands of pieces of glass were glued to the form, crushed glass called “frit” was applied to the head and feet of the crane. Four colors of grout were selected to fill the space between the tiles to form the complete mosaic design. A grout sealer was applied and the crane was sent to be clear-coated to protect the fragile nature of glass.