The Downtown Greenway is pleased to share artist Pete Beeman’s design for the Market + Branch public artwork that is planned to be installed in early 2026 as a part of the Downtown Greenway final construction.
Above: a visual representation of the piece on-site (with a person shown for scale) as seen from West MarketStreet heading east into downtown, where the Western Branch section of the Downtown Greenway crosses
A Portland native, Pete Beeman builds sculpture in Portland, Oregon and New York City. Educated at Brown and Stanford Universities in art, engineering, and design, his work is often kinetic and interactive, industrial and playful. He builds useless but functional objects and thinks a lot about how our culture rates the utility and necessity of an object. Much of Beeman’s work is permanent public art, with many pieces located in Oregon, Taiwan, and North Carolina.
This 28-foot-tall robot is kneeling and welcomes everyone: pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles as they pass along the Downtown Greenway and along West Market Street. A honeybee has perched on its head and its wings will move if you turn a hand-crank located on the robot’s leg. Both the honeybee and the robot are lit at night providing 24/7 interest.
As Pete began thinking about his design for this Market + Branch piece, he shared this narrative about his inspiration:
“The Greensboro Downtown Greenway is thoughtful urban planning at its best: intentional design to bring out the best of a city, bringing art, mobility and landscape forward in our daily lives and urban environments. While the Greenway is an approximate line between the downtown and more residential parts of the city, it has been so thoughtfully done that it becomes less of a divide between the two and more of a link connecting the two. When I approached this project, I was thinking about this idea, of two disparate elements meeting and working together. The site has such a broad swath of green, edging into more wild spots as it moves along. This had me thinking about the critters and insects of the area: foxes, deer, mayflies, bees, as representative of the natural environment around Greensboro. I started focusing on the honeybee, especially when I found out it is NC’s official insect. I love that the bee is such a small and unassuming critter, yet it performs such a crucial job in our natural environment, pollenating plants. It is a crucial cog without which the machine of nature does not turn. But I wanted something as a counterpoint to the natural element. Honeybees have seen challenges in recent years and helping them to thrive is one of the challenges humans face in this era. Without them how does our natural environment survive? This led me to think about other challenges we as humans face today, like artificial intelligence and what role it will play in our future world. It seemed to me that a goofy retro robot could be a great representative of technology, while the honeybee is a fantastic symbol of our wonderful natural world and the challenges it faces. I wanted to bring the two together, nature and technology, in the same way the greenway brings the urban and residential parts of Greensboro together.”
The Market + Branch Commission (to be formally named by Beeman in the coming months) will be prominently located on the Western Branch section of the Downtown Greenway. The site for the sculpture is adjacent to the trail as it travels along an abandoned railroad line and crosses West Market Street, a main entryway into downtown Greensboro for vehicular traffic. The highly visible site provides an excellent opportunity to transform this well-travelled route into downtown. The addition of a dynamic public artwork will serve as a visual welcome to visitors enroute to our city’s center, as well as to the users of the Downtown Greenway. The planned addition of traffic signals at this location will be designed to slow down traffic along this stretch of West Market Street to allow for greater pedestrian safety; in turn, this will also afford drivers an opportunity to view what we anticipate will be a visual cue that they are entering an area of Greensboro that is welcoming, innovative, and engaging. Because of its location, the artwork will be enjoyed on a daily basis by both pedestrians and passing vehicular traffic, and, as is the case with all sections of the Downtown Greenway, the installation will provide an opportunity to create accessible programming that will encourage engagement by all residents.
The proposed Market + Branch Public Art Project has been funded by a local non-profit, The Cemala Foundation. Chartered in 1986 by the son of the co-founder of Cone Mills, Ceasar Cone II, and his wife Martha, the Foundation was envisioned as a way of continuing the family’s history of personal and business commitment to Greensboro. Today, by funding projects such as the Market + Branch public art project, the work of The Cemala Foundation continues to support the growth of a vibrant and innovative Greensboro – nationally known as a magnet for individuals, families and businesses. Additional funding was provided by Mary Katherine and Durant Bell.
As they considered funding this project, The Cemala Foundation Board Members identified a number of characteristics they considered important as they imagined a public art piece that would be installed where the Downtown Greenway intersects with West Market Street. The Board asked Pete to consider a variety of criteria to inform his design approach, such as creating an interactive or kinetic artwork that is fun, whimsical, and welcoming to all. Size, scale and impact were also important considerations—the artwork should be visible to passing cars as well as pedestrians.
Project Manager, Dabney Sanders notes, “Pete overwhelmingly delivered on the goals we set in the call to artists for this work. It is fun, whimsical, interactive and kinetic, and so thoughtfully related to Greensboro and its surroundings. We are excited for the community to get to know this new public artwork when it is installed late this year/early next. This piece is very different from other works on the Downtown Greenway and we imagine it will become an iconic symbol within the community.”
