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Bernd Park in downtown Macon opens after two years of renovations

Ceramic artists Tanner Coleman and Alexis Gregg used inspiration from the neighborhood's classic architecture to create sculptures for the park

Tanner Coleman is beyond excited for the ribbon-cutting ceremony of his latest project in Macon.

"It's amazing to think that I'm done. When you work on something this long, it's hard to stop the pace of your mind to know that you're done," Coleman said.

Coleman and his wife Alexis Gregg are the artists behind the design of the newly renovated Bernd Park, which officially opens to the public on Monday.

"We're just thrilled that it's going to have an official opening, and we're so happy that the neighborhood and people are going to feel like, 'okay, we can finally use this park,'" Gregg said.

Most of the money came from two Downtown Challenge grants, totaling about $104,000 in addition to private donations.

Some of the money was spent on realigning the park's perimeter.

"We actually were hoping to get this work done a year before we did, but since the park was rezoned, which is awesome, this park got drawn out much longer than we thought it would," Gregg said.

Before, the park used to be much smaller. The stairs at the entrance of the park used to be part of the street.

The intersection of Cherry and Spring Street is now a four-way stop. It was changed in an effort to slow cars down to make it safer for people visiting the park.

The idea to renovate the park came from Carey Pickard, who's lived in the neighborhood for over 10 years.

"I was just going to square it up, plant some trees and be done with it. But they were really the ones that came in and said, 'we can make this a lot more' and they really have," Pickard said.

Coleman said the inspiration behind the work came from classical time periods that matched the architecture in the area.

"Alexis kind of came up with Monet's garden and this idea of a bridge over a pond of water. So, this is a lily pad and a lily flower. We have a bridge. We have a duck. We have a boat," Coleman said.

Gregg and Coleman own ANT Sculpture and Design and have work all over the world, but Gregg said this project is extra special.

"A lot of times we build these big sculptures in other countries, and we may never see them again. So, it's really meaningful that this is here in our community," Gregg said.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new and improved Bernd Park is on Monday at 10:00 a.m.

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