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See the Turtle Cluster
TAKE OFF! at the
Water Tower on Butler Ave
Sponsored by the Tybee Arts Association
Email: turtles@rammb.com
Latest News
Updated Sunday, February 18, 2007
October 28, 2006: YEA! Ma Cootah has returned to the Tybee Island Marine Science Center. The current turtle status: ALL TURTLES PRESENT AND ACCOUNTED FOR! Check out the Locator Map for the location of all the turtles.
September 15, 2006: After a looooong delay, Linda Lindeborg's Terra Turtle, sponsored in the name of the Tybee Fine Arts Commission by a consortium of local businesses and individuals, was introduced at a ceremony at Memorial Park on Friday evening. There was a gathering to participate in the refreshments, to listen to Jim Wann's composition in Terra's honor, and to congratulate Linda on her work. In addition, there are now a total of 20 sites, hosting 24 turtles, on display at various locations on Tybee Island. You can check out the map and print it, or you can stop by the Visitors' Center or other local businesses to pick up a copy. The GPS information for each turtle is included, so GPS tourists can find them as well as those who know the names of the local stores! We hope you enjoy viewing all the turtles! Click on the Turtle Galleries link to see pictures of the displays.
September 10, 2006: The Tour took a few of the more recently finished turtles to participate in Tybee's "Lei-bor" Day Luau at Memorial Park, where they met with some of the other participants!
August 31, 2006: NOTICE: As of September 1, 2006, no further scale models will be available for artists to create proposals for The Tour. As of September 15th, no further submissions will be considered for award of full-size turtles to artists to decorate for public display. Thanks for your support and participation. The next round of turtles will be officially unveiled September 15th at various locations around the island. Stop by the Gallery by the Sea or other local businesses for maps and literature about The Tour and about Tybee Island. Efforts are under way NOW to create display mountings, ready the turtles for display, and get them ready for the 15th event. Until then, there will be a few turtles on display at the upcoming Luau on Sunday, September 3rd. Want to help out? We need materials, brute force labor, and donations! Let us know if you can participate.
August 22, 2006: At a hearing, despite even the manufactured costs of undecorated turtles indicating a felony level offense, members of The Tour and the TAA went to bat and arranged for community service to The Tour to be delivered in lieu of any jail time or felony record. As a result, we have an assistant for the project who is learning just how much blood, sweat, tears, and community support, as well as funds, go into such an effort. As Cootah's base weighs a few hundred pounds, it is clear that there was more than one perpetrator, but currently, he is serving his time alone. We would still like the rest of the group to come forward or be named - as there is still plenty of community service work to be done to finish up The Tour!
July 4, 2006: It looks like our conscientious police officers have found and arrested at least one of the culprits in the vandalism and theft of Ma Cootah. The Tybee resident could not have accomplished the damage alone, but with one thief in hand, the remainder shouldn't be far behind. Thanks to those who phoned in tips - once the thief is found guilty, we'll work with the tip line and police to make arrangements for payment of the reward.
We also have a volunteer to come make the necessary fiberglass repairs to the turtle, and members of the arts association to try to duplicate Don's incredible paint job, so we should be able to have her ready for display again this summer!
June 8, 2006:
REWARD OFFERED of up to $1000
for
information leading to the arrest of the perpetrators who stole and vandalized Ma Cootah,
which was taken from in front of the Tybee Island Marine Science Center overnight, June
6th-7th. The reward of up to $1000
is provided thanks to generous donations from the community. Please contact the
Tybee Police if you can assist in the investigation! 786-5600 OR, you can call
the City of Savannah
CrimeStoppers Anonymous Tip Line at 234-2020.
June 8, 2006: The June 11th wedding of Bert (Solomon Properties) and Myrtle (Chu's Chevron) has been postponed. We'll announce the rescheduled date as soon as we hear!
March 18, 2006: March 18th saw the unveiling of Mermaid Rodeo Bareback Rider... or is it Bareback Mermaid Rodeo Rider... or... it's SO confusing! But in addition to her appearance at the fountain at Seven Flags Park at the corner of Butler and Tybrisa, Terrapin Towers was on temporary display at the base of the Pier and Pavilion, Ma Cootah enn Lee' Ones was lighting the way to the front door at the Marine Science Center, Terra Turtle waited patiently for her permanent home on the deck at Nautilus Studio, Hey-Diddle-Turtle! temporarily jumped the fence as well as the moon at Dragonfly Studio, Bert and Myrtle began making eyes at each other at the corner of Route 80 and Campbell Road. and Turtle Visions continue to dance at the door to the Tybee City Hall. Pictures of the event can be found HERE >>
As part of the festivities, TTT published the first map of turtle locations on Tybee, which can be found at various establishments around the Island. The map was also published in the June Tybee Breeze on page 44.
Mar 13, 2006: Press Release, Family Fun on Tybee
February 28, 2006: In the last month, we have assigned all ten of the original turtles, and our next batch of hatchlings is being produced! Look for announcements soon for a mass unveiling to take place within the next few weeks. There will be 20 more loggerheads requiring artist's help to reach the public. If you have a proposal that you would like to make for a turtle, please send an email to turtles@rammb.com to make arrangements to pick up your scale model. The next sitting of the judging committee will be at the end of March, with the turtles expected to arrive in mid-April, so get your creative juices flowing and submit your designs during March! If not all turtles are accounted for by awarded designs, there will be a series of jury committee meetings until all turtles are assigned to artists, but don't delay!
January 31, 2006: Well, things were a little slower over the holiday season, but we kicked off the new year with an excellent unveiling of Bert, half of the "Tourist Turtle" pair - his better half being Myrtle, who may just have found a sponsor at the unveiling thanks to Shel Solomon's enthusiasm over his new artwork! Look for him - Bert, not Shel - on the lawn of the Visitor's Center and Solomon Properties at the corner of Hwy 80 and Campbell. Bert will greet everyone at the first stop light on Tybee.
October 12 & 13, 2005: The November Fest Art Festival at Memorial Park offered an opportunity to share Tour information with plenty of visitors and residents, and we also gave folks the chance to have their picture taken with our popular mascot, Miss T. Several artists learned of the Tour at the event, and a few took small turtles to make submissions.
October 11,2005: Our first completed turtle, Turtle Visions by Sally Bostwick, was unveiled at a ceremony at City Hall complete with hors d'oeuvres. Several of our Council Members were present, as well as members of the TAA, TTT volunteers, some of our local firefighters, and many community supporters. Mayor Parker presided over the unveiling with a few words, and Sally's turtle remains on display in front of City Hall on a magnificent piece of driftwood that had been found on the beach by the City just a few days before.
October 8, 2005: The Tybee Pirate Festival and Parade took place this weekend. The TAA Tybee Turtle Tour float took BEST FLOAT prize in the parade! Please be aware that not a single drop of rum was wasted in the construction of this float, nor were any turtles harmed!
Artist submissions are still under consideration, and artists should expect to hear from the Selection Committee during this coming week. Please check the Artist's link for details on submissions and the types of art the committee is hoping to receive.
October 3, 2005: Many artists are applying for consideration; we're hoping to get a gallery going here soon. City Council has elected to go "Full Turtle" in support of Sally Bostwick's design. See the header on the Artists link to the left to see what the scale model version can look like! In the meantime, the Tour will be mounting eye-patches, downing a fair bit of rum, and preparing the Nekkid Turtle Parade for this coming weekend's Pirate Fest on Tybee. Look for them in the Pirate Parade!
September 20, 2005: The turtles are here! One blank turtle is sitting out in front of City Hall on Butler for all to see. Others are floating here and there around the island. Keep your eyes peeled! The artist and fabricator from IconPoly came to visit Tybee and show us how to set up front fins on the finished fiberglass product. We have several submissions for turtle art, but we have extended the deadline for submission indefinitely. Accepted proposals that cannot be accommodated with these first ten turtles will be saved for the next round in 2006. Artists are encouraged to get wild with their design submissions - have some fun!
September 8, 2005: The set of 10 turtles is done, and they are on their way to Tybee! Apologies, but there was an update on the artists' page that we missed a few weeks ago - be aware that the due date for submissions is, in fact, EXTENDED INDEFINITELY.
August 30, 2005: The work at IconPoly is moving right along, with work being performed to assist us in mounting the turtles properly in prone, tripod, or full standing positions, on their arrival. For pictures of this work in progress, check out IconPoly's Turtle Tour web site.
July 31, 2005: Our friends and supporters at Tybee Island Online have made arrangements to get the domain name TybeeTurtleTour.org assigned to our project, to make it easier for people to remember how to get here. You may now reach the TTT pages either via the Tybee Arts Association, www.tybeearts.org, or more directly through www.tybeeturtletour.org. Thanks!
The latest suite of pictures from IconPoly of the work in progress:
July 24, 2005: Here is the current work in progress from IconPoly:
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IconPoly is going to make the model with detachable flippers, so that their orientation or even shape can be modified to suit the artist's intent. It should also be mountable as shown or in a standing position, again to let creativity dictate the final position.
July 17, 2005: Tybee artist Samantha Claar has taken a Galapagos turtle model from her menagerie and, with the help of Donna McBride, turned it into Miss T, the Tybee Turtle Tour Mascot. Look for it at events and meetings around the island, until our own models begin to arrive this fall.
Miss T
July 10, 2005: A Nebraska firm, IconPoly, has been selected to create our fiberglass turtles. They start their process by building a prototype out of Styrofoam, and then proceed to build the finished fiberglass product based on that. IconPoly has also given us a direct link to their site so you can view project progress there, where work began on Tuesday, July 5th, or you can see our view of history by scrolling through this page.
You can see great drawings of the loggerhead at National Geographic's Coloring Book pages, or go straight to their home page, below.
Here is the original sketch provided to IconPoly:
And the first-ever Tybee Turtle Tour artistic effort was created by Ruth Hoopes:
This site created and maintained by Tybee Island Online.
All rights reserved. Copyright 2005.