This installment in our ongoing series about Wichita’s public art collection takes a look at one of the city’s newest acquisitions, “Source,” a site-specific sculpture installed in 2024 at the Wichita Water Works facility.

For all its stature, the 37-foot-tall sculpture standing sentinel to the City of Wichita’s new $574-million water treatment plant, located in northwest Wichita just off Zoo Boulevard on N. Hoover Road, flows nearly seamlessly into the larger municipal landscape — at least in the daytime. At night, though, Jill Anholt’s “Source” — a spiraling, fluid form in steel, aluminum, paint, and LED lighting reminiscent of two eddies in water — stands out, arresting the attention of passersby and lighting up its industrial-complex surroundings.

“Source” is the largest of three public art pieces commissioned several years ago by the city for the water treatment plant. Always attuned to the particulars of place, Anholt explains that she designed the sky blue-painted, LED-lined, twice looped steel and aluminum sculpture with the “balance and harmony” of the facility’s two main water-supply sources in mind: Cheney Reservoir and the Equus Beds Aquifer. “One is from above, a surface water source, and one from below, from a ground source,” she says.

An award-winning artist based in Vancouver, Canada, Anholt has been making works of public art since 1998. Her practice as principal at Vancouver’s Jill Anholt Studio includes commissioned environmental and sculptural installations, like “Source,” as well as collaborative design team projects for public spaces across North America. Her works range from small-scale installations in buildings and public plazas to large, complex integrated pieces for parks, pedestrian walkways, transit stations, and, since 2024, a water treatment facility.

“My project ‘Source’ speaks to the origins of Wichita’s drinking water whilst forming a landmark element for viewers that celebrates the importance of clean, pure water in all of our lives,” Anholt says. Environmental sustainability, she adds, is an important concept that plays a foundational role in the development of many of her works, including “Source.” Created alongside collaborators Imagine Design and Production Ltd. (fabricator) and Bryan Starr (engineer), Anholt’s Wichita Water Works sculpture also speaks to her love of exploring both the general, universal relationship between nature and infrastructure, body and place, and the specific, distinctive stories, systems, and conditions of a particular place, which she weaves into her public-realm artworks for the purpose of engaging more directly with viewers.

Anholt, who holds degrees from the Emily Carr Institute of Art & Drawing in sculpture and drawing (1992) and from the University of British Columbia in architecture (1996), draws from that education and her three decades as an artist to embrace a wide range of scales and materials in her public works, which often incorporate illumination. “Source,” for example, features a lighting show that subtly cycles through three sequences that reference the collection and distribution of water through the community. Each sequence plays with the color and temperature of the LED lighting, oscillating between cooler and warmer white lights.w

“I love working on art projects that are located in public spaces as it means that my artworks are freely accessible to everyone,” Anholt says. “As such, I try to create public art experiences that can create connections between people and between people and places, prompting observations, reflections, dialogue, and conversations.”

Joining “Source” on the grounds of the water treatment complex are two other water-inspired sculptures. “Cloud Fields” (stainless steel, acrylic paint; 2024) is by Los Angeles-based multi-media artist Sijia Chen and “Water is Life Wichita” (stainless steel, LEDs; 2023) was created by Joseph O’Connell, the founder and art director of Creative Machines in Tucson, Arizona. Chen’s installation is of a series of three colorful and playful cloud forms positioned along the Hoover Road bike path that winds around the complex. O’Connell’s work, which sits outside the main entrance to the complex’s administrative center, looks from a distance like a big drop of water but on closer inspection reveals cutouts that show a variety of native plants and animals.

The three art installations, which collectively cost $1.25 million, were funded by the project budget for the plant, which will cost more than $550 million. The artworks comprise less than 0.23% of the total.

While public funding for public works of art is not without its critics, the city’s call for applicants went out in 2023 for “three public sculpture art commissions” to be installed at the new water treatment facility being built at 2120 N. Hoover Road. The applications submitted by Anholt, Chen, and O’Connell were selected for the commissions by a project steering committee that included several members of the Wichita City Council and staff of the Sedgwick County Zoo, which is located directly northwest of the plant. After several delays, the facility itself is expected to be operational by the end of this year and will serve Wichita, surrounding communities, industries, and wholesale customers by providing 120 million gallons per day of drinking water and replacing the city’s aging main water treatment center. Once the new plant opens, Wichita will use both new and old facilities with piping to connect the two.

“Source” and its two Wichita Water Works sculpture companions are on view now for visitors of all ages — at any time of the day or night.

Correction: This post was updated on August 12 to reflect that the sculptures at Wichita Water Works were funded by the project budget, not the Percent for Art ordinance. Read more about our commitment to sharing accurate information.

Connie Kachel White is a writer and editor who has written about the arts in Wichita for going on three decades now. White, whose communications gigs range from book-editing to investigative reporting, is the founding and current editor of Wichita State University’s The Shocker magazine. More of her writing can be found online at theshockermagazine.com and shockerconnect.com.

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