Anchorage artist Christina Demetro works on a maquette of The Giving Salmon, the Homer Foundation’s 25th anniversary gift to the community.

The Homer Foundation recently celebrated 25 years of creating community philanthropy. To commemorate this milestone the Foundation selected artist Christina Demetro to sculpt a six-foot bronze sculpture called The Giving Salmon. The Giving Salmon will be located in front of the new Boat House Pavilion. Created to be interactive, the public will be able to “feed” the Giving Salmon by making donations into the Chinook’s mouth. The donations will benefit the community through the Homer Foundation, bringing awareness to the cycle of giving.

Christina was selected through Call for Entry, an online call management system. According to Homer Foundation executive director Joy Steward, “Twenty-nine proposals were received from around the country; we were gratified by the number of strong Alaskan applicants. Christina rose to the top through her strong resume, design, and the desire to use her art to build community through the sculpture process.”

Like the Homer Foundation, Christina has a similar anniversary–25 years of sculpting.
She first apprenticed with her father, sculptor Jim Demetro, on a public sculpture called Mother Bathing Child when she was 19. After a decade as an assistant sculptor, Christina started creating her own bronze public pieces, as well as continuing co-creations with her father and local residents.

Among other projects, Christina and her father had over 1,300 citizens in Vancouver, WA, join in the creation of the city’s namesake statue. In Puerto Vallarta school children recently helped co-sculpt a burro statue, and in Anchorage a humpback whale peace symbol sculpture. In a bi-partisan effort, the father-daughter team also created four Spirit of America statues for a 9/11 memorial.

Christina says, “I delight in the viewer enjoying the discovery and interaction of a piece and, in a lot of cases, the exploration of co-creating the sculpture out of clay or wax before it’s cast in bronze.” Slated for a mid-September installation, keep a look out for locations around Homer where you and your family can join Christina to help sculpt The Giving Salmon in the coming months.

Her heart in Homer, Christina lives in Anchorage with her husband Eric, whose talent for making stringed instruments fills her work studio with live music. She says of Homer, “I’m excited to facilitate this sculpture’s creation with such an artistic community. No matter whether you call yourself an artist or not, I extend a warm welcome to come sculpt with us.”