NCAA seeks funds to purchase "Peacemaker" sculpture

Visitors to Niwot's Sculpture Park at the southwest corner of 79th Street and Niwot Road may assume that all of the sculptures are on permanent display.

In fact, the Niwot Cultural Arts Association owns only five of the sculptures, as the rest are on loan from the artists, including the iconic and imposing "Peacemaker" bronze sculpture, which greets visitors who enter the park from the east side.

Of the five permanent sculptures, four have been donated to the NCAA, and the fifth, "Kore That Awakening," was purchased by the NCAA from a Ukrainian artist in 2022 after a fundraising campaign generated enough funds to meet the $25,000 purchase price.

This year, the NCAA sculpture park committee, which includes Lisa Rivard, Anne Postle and Jill Whitener, have selected the "Peacemaker" bronze sculpture as the object of a fundraising campaign, with the goal of raising $55,000 in donations to cover the cost of purchasing the sculpture.

Although some may assume that the sculpture depicts Chief Niwot, that is not the case, according to the artist Bobbie Carlyle. There are no known and confirmed images of Chief Niwot, an Arapaho chief who was known as a "peace chief" in the Boulder and Left Hand valleys in the mid-1800s, befriending white settlers. Chief Niwot is believed to have died from wounds suffered at the Sand Creek Massacre in 1864 near Eads, Colorado. The image of "Peacekeeper" depicts an image of a Native American chief extending a peace pipe.

Donations to the Peacemaker Project can be made online at www.niwotarts.org, or by check payable to the Niwot Cultural Arts Association, P. O. Box 733, Niwot, CO 80544, or at the offices of Warren, Carlson & Moore, LLP, Attorneys, at 6964 N. 79th Street, Suite 3, Niwot, in the Cottonwood Square Shopping Center. Please note "Peacemaker" on any donation.