“In honor of the Bloomsday Run…This sculpture represents people of all ages and nationalities, creating a positive symbol by acknowledging the larger spirit of our local community and the world.”
—David Govedare, the artist
As a novice watercolorist for several years with the former Saratoga Community of Painters in Saratoga, CA, I have an appreciation of art including muralists and sculptors that make a statement for the public good. In this case, I was absolutley awestruck when my eyes first layed sight on the Joy of Running Together sculptures, a public work comprised of 40 life-sized figures, all posed in the motion of running located near the finish line of the race. I loved it so much I wanted to be a part of it—as you can see in the photo as did our friend Susie Bye, a triathlete who beat me to the finish line:-)The sculpture is intended to give encouragement to the runners in their last leg of the race.
The Bloomsday Run is an annual timed road race in Spokane, WA where we recently visited for a few days. What began as a small run with about 1,200 runners over 40 years ago has become an annual tradition and national running event attracting tens of thousand of runners every May, thought the last two year were done virtually due to the pandemic.
“The Joy of Running Together,” sculpture by Govedare is a gift to the City of Spokane by individuals and businesses who helped sponsor the work in friendship with the Lilac Bloomsday Association (1985).
*Bloomsday celebrates Thursday 16, 1904, the day depicted in Irish writer James Joyce’s novel Ulysses. The day is named after Leopold Bloom, the central character that the novel chronicles
