Grand Rapids Announces New Fluoride-Themed Sculpture
A new 33-foot-high sculpture will commemorate the city's role as one of the first in the nation to put fluoride in its water supply.

The blue metal sculpture — created by Dutch artist Cyril Lixenberg — will sit along the bank of the Grand River in a plaza near the entrance to the new J.W. Marriott Hotel.

Lixenberg said the work of art evokes cascading water — a reference to the river and the Grand Rapids water supply. The sculpture, which will be lit by the hotel as part of its riverfront plaza, will be built and installed by local steel fabricators. It will be unveiled when the hotel opens next year.

It will replace an 11-year-old white marble monument whose tooth-like elements were cracked by vandals and stained by weather, James Wieland, head of the West Michigan Dental Foundation, told The Grand Rapids Press for a story published Wednesday.

Even though the five-ton sculpture will sit on city park land, it will be maintained by a $50,000 endowment set up by the dental foundation.

Grand Rapids began fluoridating its water supply in 1945 and was one of the first in the U.S. to do so. Fluoridation has resulted in a 65 per cent decline in tooth decay, Wieland alleged.

Lixenberg, whose work also is featured at Holland Hospital, was chosen from three finalists, Wieland said.

"We specifically asked that it be fine art and that it not be a tooth in the river," said Wieland, referring to an earlier campaign to commemorate the fluoridation program.

Photo: Cyril Lixenberg posed in Grand Rapids beside a scale model of a 33-foot sculpture he will create to honor the city's role as one of the first in the nation to put fluoride in its water supply.