Opening Our Doors: Workshop Tours and Public Art Conversations

It’s always fun welcoming new faces to Denali HQ, and last November, we hosted a group of artists from the Acadiana Center for the Arts. We talked all things public art fabrication, materials, budgeting, and how to get started on turning big ideas into impressive public art.

Dan Alley introduces himself and the range of services we offer here at Denali to visiting artists from Acadiana Center for the Arts.

Visitors were guided through the metal shop, wood shop, wax room, and foundry. Dan covered everything from stamped engineering drawings and wind rating letters to the realities of working with different materials in the Gulf South. Emily Brannan, our foundry lead, talked about the bronze casting process, and Charlie Mabry introduced the various wax types we use when making molds. The crew answered questions about welding, powder coating, and why we recommend aluminum over steel for outdoor work. 

Emily Brannan and Charlie Mabry show visitors around the wax room.

It was one of those afternoons that reminded us why we love doing what we do – not just the fabrication itself, but getting to share our expertise and excitement with artists who are figuring out how to get their ambitious ideas out there for the public to enjoy.

A Chance to Get Answers in Real Time

Almost every week, we’ll get an email from an artist reaching out to us with questions about a bold idea: What’s the ballpark pricetag for something like this? What materials work best? Do I need an engineer? Can you help me figure out if this will even work?!

Those conversations are easier when you can actually see the space, meet the people, and get a sense of what's involved. Walking through the shop gives artists a clearer picture of the process. You can chat through the different steps, and hear all about the potential (inevitable!) hurdles that may pop up.

We've worked on projects that start as a paper maquette and end up as a 14-foot steel sculpture near Claiborne Avenue, New Orleans. We've cast monumental bronze pieces, built powder-coated aluminum installations, and fabricated concrete pedestals that had to be light enough to transport but heavy enough to anchor a sculpture. Every project teaches us something new.

When artists come through, we talk about those projects honestly – because perhaps the biggest thing we do here at Denali is problem-solve. There’s no point in pretending that it’s all smooth sailing when we collaborate with artists. There are always challenges. And because we’ve had to navigate those challenges many times and in many different ways, we can help you make the best decisions about your own work before any fabrication begins.

Visitors take a closer look at [X] sculpture, which

What We Usually Cover on Tours

The Acadiana group got a pretty comprehensive look at our process:

• Engineering requirements: Why stamped drawings matter, what a wind rating letter is, and how to avoid budget-blowing surprises halfway through fabrication

  
  

• Material choices: Aluminum vs. steel, powder coating vs. automotive paint, and why certain finishes hold up better in our humid climate

  
  

• Budgeting realities: What things actually cost, where you can save money, and how to work within constraints without compromising the piece

  
  

• Our equipment and capabilities: What we can do in-house, when we outsource, and how we collaborate with other shops and specialists

  
  

• Real project examples: The pieces currently on Poydras Corridor and around NOLA, work we've done for museums and galleries, and a few problem-solving stories that highlight how we approach challenges

  
  

We also talk about the less glamorous stuff – permits, change orders, timeline expectations, and what happens when an engineer comes back and says your quarter-inch material needs to be three-eighths. Yep - that can happen!

Dan Alley introduces four of our recent fabrication projects to visiting artists.

The Projects Getting A Closer Look

Visitors learned about four of our recent public art sculptures, all of which are currently on view in and around New Orleans:

George Dunbar's "Monumental Deity XX" was our largest bronze casting project to date. Towering over 14 feet and fabricated in bronze, this piece was completed in collaboration with the legendary New Orleans artist shortly before his passing in 2023 at age 96. The sculpture is reminiscent of a fragment of a torso or ancient Greek bust, representing Dunbar's exploration of classical forms within modernist ideals. Dunbar’s piece involved a steep learning curve: the crew had to figure out ceramic shell casting at scale and work through structural challenges. The end result was something we're incredibly proud of.

Ashley Teamer's "Tambourine Cypress" started as a construction paper maquette. The challenge was translating those shapes into steel while maintaining the texture and form the artist wanted. We ended up CNC-cutting shapes based on the original maquette, then piecing them together to create the final 14-foot structure. The piece honors the natural landscape, music, and people that have inhabited the land surrounding Claiborne Avenue, with wind chimes and cymbals creating glittering sounds that connect to the Black Masking Indians, gospel music, and the entire range of music that relies on the tambourine.

Matt Scobey's "Poydras Corridor Polyhedra" stands 17 feet tall and is currently the tallest sculpture on Poydras Corridor. Made from 3/16" aluminum that was scored, folded, and welded into four stacked geometric forms – a truncated pyramid, cuboctahedron, icosahedron, and octahedron – the piece incorporates 3-inch thick colored plexiglass between each form. The polyhedra shapes are a mix of Platonic and Archimedean solids, sometimes called "cosmic solids," each representing different elements.

H. Grace Boyle's "Formplay No. 2" stands at 16 feet tall and weighs 2.25 tons. With beginnings as a smaller studio work using marble candlestick holders, this piece required precision engineering to maintain perfect symmetry across massive steel square tube frames. Perhaps the most challenging part was then covering the frames in stucco, which required careful surface application on the curved, inverted surfaces.

These projects gave the visiting artists a sense of what's possible when you work with us – with four different materials/finishes and at varying scales.

What's Next: A Deeper Dive into Public Art

The tour generated plenty of follow-up questions. Keep an eye out for a more detailed blog post about how to actually plan and execute a public sculpture project from start to finish.

For now, the main takeaway is this: if you've got questions about art fabrication, installation, or public art, we're happy to talk you through each step. (And if you’re serious about getting a new idea out there, the sooner you bring us in, the better!)

Want to Visit?

We’re always excited to give tours for artists, arts organizations, students, and anyone interested in seeing how art fabrication happens.

If you'd like to visit us, get in touch. We'll walk you through the space, answer your questions, and give you a behind-the-scenes look at what we're currently working on.

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This post is part of our Shop Talk series, where we share insights on art fabrication, installation, and the real stories about making ambitious projects happen. Want more? Subscribe to our newsletter for updates on new posts, projects, and behind-the-scenes work.