10 a.m., Fri., Oct. 5: the city of Philadelphia will dedicate a 9-foot bronze sculpture of Ben Franklin next to the Engine 8 firehouse at 4th and Arch Streets. Everyone's invited.
Commissioned by the city and sculpted by Philly artist James Peniston, "Keys To Community" will replace the one-of-a-kind "Penny Franklin," the 1971 acrylic sculpture that was covered with 80,000 pennies collected from schoolkids, and which was removed in 1996 after it began to deteriorate. In its place will go James' sculpture, a one-ton bronze bust that incorporates more than 1,000 keys he collected at local elementary schools while giving talks about Franklin. Some of your kids may have given keys or pennies -- in all, schoolchildren donated nearly 1.5 million one-cent pieces to help fund the work.
The sculpture also received funding from the Philadelphia Fire Department. During the casting, several firefighters placed the brass nameplates of fallen colleagues into the molten metal. See you at the dedication!
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