Public Art, “Kentucky Family,” Comes Home To Highland Park

By Chuck Keller, Contributor

On March 28, there was a homecoming of sorts as a piece of public art was dedicated in Highland Park. The statue was originally designed by world-renowned local artist, Michael Skop, for the Northern Kentucky Vocational Technical School in Kenton County, but after the school closed, the statue’s journey to Fort Thomas began. The story of how the statue was made and its journey to the park is interesting. 

The city’s website provides some initial background. “Michael Skop (1932-2009) lived and worked in Fort Thomas, Kentucky at Studio 70 on Hawthorne Avenue. For forty years, he attracted students from all over the United States, England, Canada, and Japan. Skop studied at Syracuse University and the University of Notre Dame with Ivan Mestrovic and then went on to study at the Royal Danish Art Academy through a Scandinavian grant to Copenhagen, Denmark with Mogens Bøggild. Skop then won the very first Fulbright Scholarship of the arts where he studied in Florence, Italy and at the University of Perugia. Skop taught locally at the Cincinnati Art Academy and Northern Kentucky University.” In fact, one of his pieces still graces the front yard of his former home. 

The sculpture is entitled “Kentucky Family” and is meant to capture the spirit of those first European families moving to the area. Kathy Skop Sinclair, Skop’s widow and retired Highlands art teacher, says, “From the beginning the ‘Kentucky Family’ theme was in his mind. Mike moved to Kentucky on purpose because he loved the place and its people. He found the authentic nature to be fascinating .…He imagined the difficulty of raising a family on his own with no family around and how heroic and proud of a struggle that can be for anyone.  This down to earth adventure is an eternal struggle of mankind and appropriate for our time.” 

Skop had worked on large sculptures before but he wanted to try something new. He wanted to soften the steel by making it look like the piece was sculpted from clay. That would require lots of welding of smaller pieces. That’s where Professor George Telford’s welding class at the vocational school entered the picture. 

Sinclair says, “He [Mike] loved George Telford … who was a quiet, humble man…. Mike wanted [the students] to make the Kentucky Family and soon enlisted all these guys to help.” “These guys” were Telford’s students and a number of them were members of a local motorcycle gang who were court-ordered to learn a trade. Skop was an imposing figure himself having played Syracuse football with the likes of Jim Brown. 

Even though daughter Ahna Skop was a little girl, she remembers one of “the other people that helped weld the piece was named Buddha. She remembers that he was the head of the Hell Angels biker gang of Northern KY/Cincinnati.  They loved dad a lot as most of them were in this class.  I remember he had this huge belly, bigger than my dad’s, which I think pleased him that someone else’s was bigger. I was a bit scared of Buddha but he was a big teddy bear.” 

This relationship developed well beyond the time of making the statue. Ahna Skop recalls that it “changed my view of biker gang people. Along with this sculpture, Buddha and my dad welded our fireplace [that] we put into the main living room in our home. I will never forget about 30 motorcyclists trailing a huge flatbed truck to deliver and install that fireplace in our home.” 

Kathy Skop Sinclair recalls how the statue began its journey from Park Hills to Fort Thomas, “This sculpture was given to the Vocational School in Park Hills and was installed there for more than twenty years. When they tore down the building, I asked for the sculpture to be taken to Fort Thomas where Ken Bowman took this project over.” This was spring of 2017.

Ken Bowman, who was on city council at that time and owner of Bowman’s Frame Shop, is a long time art collector and admirer. He says that in 2017, “At the time there were no plans to save it…. Mike and many of his students were clients of my shop, so I was well aware of the probable quality of the work and potential asset it could be for the city.” 

Site visits and planning began. Former city manager Ron Dill and Fort Thomas resident Chris Manning of Human Nature landscape design added their support and expertise to the project.   

Bowman recalls that initially “It was installed on a platform about 10 feet in the air to match the site line visible from their parking lot. I was greatly impressed and decided to try my best to make it happen for the city.” Public art is always a draw for communities and this piece carries significance. 

Bowman tells how, “Due to the size, weight and difficulty in relocating it to safe storage it required pretty specialized abilities from a professional company. I contacted David Hosea from Hosea Worldwide. I knew that they had the capability to handle even bigger tasks, and he was always a good partner with the city in other ways. They were able to successfully disassemble the platform and load the figures onto a flatbed with a crane. He put them into covered storage at their facility for the next few years.” Eventually, a request for proposal went out regarding some of the specialized construction skills needed for installation. Bowman says that,  “the current council approved the modest cost to let it finally get done.”

The new platform has been raised a bit higher but the overall effect is impressive and imposing. The steel figures are roughly ten feet tall and now they rest another ten feet above the ground.

“Kentucky Family” has an interesting story of community, talents, desires, and sheer will coming together. A number of people in the community came together to make this happen for the community. 

Art always tells a story and we have to unlock that story by asking questions of the piece. When you visit it in Highland Park, study the faces and the body language. What emotions do they project? Why is the man’s hand extended and open? Why does the mother clutch an infant? Are they alone? What do they see? Will they survive? 

Ahna Skop says, “I’m thrilled to see my father’s piece in my hometown.  It feels incredibly special for my father to be honored by our city, a city we often felt like outsiders when we first moved here from Connecticut as a family of artists…. I hope that former friends, neighbors, old and new city residents will get to enjoy the sculpture in such a beautiful setting.”