Guardian of the Arts honors Mim Enck & all who support the arts in Mount Gretna

During the intermittently drizzly afternoon on Saturday, May 24, a crowd gathered around the historic Mount Gretna Playhouse to watch the unveiling of a 12-foot bronze sculpture, complete with water and lighting features.

The Mount Gretna Arts Council unveiled the Guardian of the Arts, a permanent installation designed by artist Cory Wanamaker and enhanced by landscape artist Ryan Fretz, commissioned and donated by the Mim Enck Charitable Foundation.

When Tom Baum, a foundation trustee, a playhouse operation committee member, and a Mount Gretna resident, was becoming acquainted with the operations of the playhouse in October 2023, Max Hunsicker, an artist and Mount Gretna resident, showed him a space between the restrooms suitable to display a piece of art.

“I thought you know, that would be an honorable thing to do with Mim’s Foundation to provide something for there,” Baum told the crowd. “And I looked through a lot of commercially available arts, fountains, and that kind of stuff. Nothing just quite did it.”

Suzanne Stewart, executive director of Gretna Music, suggested Baum contact Wanamaker, an artist from Mount Gretna who was living in Argentina at the time.

Wanamaker told LebTown that the honor of being commissioned to design a public art piece was heightened by being located in Mount Gretna and even more so by paying tribute to the late Miriam “Mim” Enck, who supported the local arts community and introduced him to the people from whom he purchased the piece of land where he built his first studio.

The conversations about the design, which Wanamaker used to capture the essence of the concept, started about a year and a half ago. When asked about how many hours he invested into the design, Wanamaker responded, “I had a really wise mentor once that said, ‘Anytime anybody asks you how long it took, you give them the amount of years you’ve been working because that all gets behind you and makes you stronger.'”

Wanamaker initially created a 17-foot sculpture design for the space between the restrooms. “After showing it to several people, trying to build support for it, everybody said, ‘That thing is beautiful, but don’t put it between the bathrooms,'” Baum told the crowd.

The Mount Gretna Arts Council and the Pennsylvania Chautauqua Board of Managers ultimately approved the design of the 12-foot sculpture to be installed in front of the playhouse. Mount Gretna Borough was also involved with the process.

Wanamaker told LebTown that using local artisans and foundries is “a natural part of my process as an artist,” whether he is working in Mount Gretna or abroad.

Wanamaker added that he plans to move back to the United States full-time with his wife, Christy, for the first time in 20 years — possibly for just one year — and will present Living Globally, Working Locally on Tuesday, July 8, at 7 p.m., at the Hall of Philosophy.

Wanamaker’s design was cast in bronze by Lancaster-based A.R.T. Research Enterprises and features green wine bottles collected by the Mount Gretna community and ground up by Lancaster Products in Lebanon.

Baum told LebTown that the collection was “a community effort,” and mentioned the obstacles of receiving antique green rather than “green-green”-colored wine bottles, and rather than “clean-clean” bottles, ones in which, for example, the label was removed but not the sticky adhesive, which needed to be scrubbed clean.

“If I ever see another one, it’ll be too soon,” Baum quipped to the crowd, later telling LebTown that he spent days cleaning the wine bottles for the installation.

Fretz, a landscape artist native to Mount Gretna, told LebTown that he completed the bulk of his work on the project — in long hours on rainy days and alongside other responsibilities such as planting flowers for the Chautauqua — after the concrete foundation was poured by Lebanon-based Arthur Funk & Sons Inc. about three weeks ago.

Fretz’s primary focus in enhancing the Guardian of the Arts’ viewing experience was the stonework surrounding the sculpture. He replaced the former curbline with one made up of larger rocks.

“The idea was to create sort of a separation that people wouldn’t just walk right into it. It was more substantial,” Fretz told LebTown. “So, the concept was to mimic the form, but also … the feeling of water, like the flow in the rocks, the way they go up and they come back down, is sort of the motion of a wave.”

Fretz remembered working for Enck in maintaining her Mount Gretna residence’s grounds: “Her grounds at her home were exquisite. I can’t take credit for whoever did the original work. … I had little gems in the landscape, taking some small spaces and recreating them. That property had the ‘Wow.’ She just took all that stuff very seriously.

“If she’s looking down on this moment, I’m sure she’s smiling.”

Enck, who was also a Santa Fe resident, studied under Julia Child before having “a storied professional career in culinary arts,” succeeding locally and globally, alongside her husband, the late Walter Progner, Baum told the crowd.

“She always said cooking was an art form. And if she ever entertained you, you’d know exactly what she meant, from the plates to the chargers to the linens to the music that was playing and just sumptuous food always,” Baum told the crowd.

Enck cared deeply about supporting the arts in Mount Gretna, providing the tea and accessories for the concession stand, sponsoring concerts, serving on the board, and hosting “Bach’s Coffee Cantata,” a concert in their decorated coffee warehouse raising funds to support Gretna Music.

Baum told LebTown that the Guardian of the Arts has Enck-related “Easter eggs all over it,” from the base of the sculpture paying tribute to her love of ginkgo trees, the water elements paying tribute to her almost-spiritual view on the importance of the kind of water used for tea, coffee, and other beverages, and the grounded up wine bottles paying tribute to the late married couple’s “extravagant” wine collection.

“Although this sculpture is an attempt to capture her sophistication, grace, and elegance, it’s not all about Mim,” Baum told the crowd. “In keeping with her private nature, she would have wanted it to be a tribute to all who support the arts with their time, talent, and treasure in our community. For this reason, the sculpture is named the Guardian of the Arts.”

Those interested in helping to preserve the Guardian of the Arts can make a donation to the Mount Gretna Arts Council in the name of the Sculpture Preservation Fund.