Richfield's Marty Kirsch: A booster in bronze

Elizabeth Flores, Star Tribune

Marty Kirsch has the unusual honor of seeing his image in a life-size bronze statue in his hometown of Richfield. The statue went in last September as part of a public art installation outside of the City Bella development. Ever since, somebody has been dressing it every couple weeks in a costume reflective of the season.

Former Richfield mayor Marty Kirsch has been immortalized in a statue -- with a mysterious, ever-changing wardrobe.

By MARY JANE SMETANKA, Star Tribune

Last update: April 9, 2008 - 10:05 AM

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Through rain and snow and bitter cold, former Richfield Mayor Marty Kirsch has been sitting on a bench on W. 66th Street.

At Christmas, he donned a red Santa hat and scarf and held a wreath. During hockey season, he wore a helmet and a Richfield High School jersey and had a hockey stick on his lap. He wore an Indian headdress at Thanksgiving and when Richfield began its centennial celebration, he donned a top hat and centennial T-shirt.

Always, the "I Richfield" cap that Kirsch is known for lay on the bench next to him. You couldn't budge it if you wanted to.

The all-weather Kirsch and his ever-present hat are bronze versions of the corporeal Marty Kirsch and the cap he still wears. Mayor of Richfield from 1990 to 2006, he is alive and well and sometimes walks right by his graven self. He is thrilled with the statue.

"It's unbelievable," said Kirsch, who said he felt like pinching himself last summer when he was modeling for the bronze in artist Jane Frees-Kluth's south Minneapolis garage. "She did a super job."

The statue is part of a public art installation of three sculptures around the City Bella development at the intersection of Lyndale Avenue S. and 66th Street. Jan Susee, a lawyer who manages apartment projects, suggested Kirsch be the subject of one of the sculptures because he is a "man of vision" who had done a lot for Richfield. The bronze was dedicated last fall.

Ever since, someone -- Kirsch and Susee say they do not know who -- has been stealthily dressing the statue in the middle of the night, periodically changing costumes.

"He's had a Hawaiian shirt on a couple of times, and he had on one of those 'Fargo' earflap hats, I think representing our rather cold spring," Susee said. "Everybody just enjoys it. ... Maybe it makes you think, makes you smile. Life is difficult these days and this makes you stop and lose yourself in the day and the art."

The mayor's statue as well as the two other pieces were paid for with $80,000 in private, city and Metropolitan Council money allocated for public art. All three are owned by the nonprofit Kirchbak Sculpture Garden, which sits across the street behind the M&I Bank in Richfield.

Susee said he has heard of people getting something to drink at the nearby Caribou Coffee, sitting on the bench and chatting with the "mayor." Cars slow down and do a double-take at the sculpture, and Kirsch said some drivers circle around the block to take a closer look at what the statue is wearing.

For a few days, the statue wore a Caribou apron and cap. Liese Reisinger, who was working behind Caribou's counter recently, said she had nothing to do with the dressing of the statue.

"It's a mystery," she said. "People do it overnight. ... The first time my daughter saw it, she was totally freaked out. It's a real conversation piece."

The City Bella complex, which includes condominiums and apartments, is running a contest to see who can design the best costume for the statue. Resident Phyllis Krull said she knows one woman who looks out her window daily to see what the statue has on.

"It's cold out," Krull said. "She's concerned if he doesn't have any clothes on."

Mary Jane Smetanka • 612-673-7380

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