Next time you are walking down Academy Street, look for the twelve benches by public artist Jack Mackie. These twelve granite pieces mimic the shapes of musical instruments that found an American voice in the Carolina Piedmont and Appalachians: mandolin, dulcimer, dobro, violin, and courting dulcimer.  

On each bench is a uniquely etched image of dogwood flowers and animals indigenous to North Carolina. One of the dulcimer benches, for example, features the Bickwick Wren, while the dobro bench includes the bog turtle. Every bench also features text, primarily drawn from poems, referring to either the instrument or to dance and music as a whole. 

The etched text is by poets who range from the classical (Yeats, Coleridge) to North Carolina natives (Carl Sandburg, RR Richardson, and Maya Angelou). These texts are sandblast etched into the granite and filled with Lithichrome Black Shadow, a standard industrial lacquer.

Check out an interview with the artist Jack Mackie by poet April Halprin Wayland. Additionally, here's a new interview and more information about the artist and these pieces.