Mayor dedicates new public artwork downtown

A close up of reflective balls, a part of the "A Common Thread" a public sculpture

Mayor Linda Gorton today dedicated “A Common Thread,” a new public art sculpture commemorating the City’s 250th anniversary.

“A Common Thread is a powerful illustration for this moment in Lexington’s history,” Mayor Linda Gorton said. “It’s a reflection of who we are, and what connects us. A Common Thread welcomes individuals as a symbol of unity and connection, inviting viewers to contemplate what binds us together as members of a community.”

The piece, which is located in the Robert F. Stephens Courthouse Plaza, was designed and created by artist Benjamin Ball of Ball-Nogues Studio. 

“A Common Thread is a public sculpture, landscape, and collective act of imagination,” Ball said.  It weaves together the voices of Kentucky’s poets laureate, the reflections of passersby, and the spirit of a city always becoming. Fragments of poetry mingle with mirrored glimpses of the surrounding streetscape—inviting viewers to see themselves as part of Lexington’s unfolding story. In this space of reflection, language, memory, and movement intertwine. The work becomes a loom for shared identity—a place where past and future, word and image, individual and community, are held together by a common thread.”


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