A five-piece sculpture collection, including three works that once stood inside Chicago's James R. Thompson Center, has found a new permanent address at Davis Park, 320 S. Wyman St. in downtown Rockford. The centerpiece is John Henry's Bridgeport, a 35-foot-tall painted aluminum sculpture that spent nearly four decades in the Chicago building before making the move northwest.
According to Rock River Current, GoRockford and the Rockford Art Museum unveiled the collection on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. The group said the works establish Davis Park as a cultural landmark on the city's riverfront. GoRockford had approached the Rockford Art Museum to help secure the Thompson Center artworks for the park, and the museum will control the loaned sculptures indefinitely, since the state of Illinois owns them.
Bridgeport, created in 1984 for what was then the State of Illinois Center before it was renamed for Gov. James R. Thompson, measures 35 feet tall, 15 feet wide and 25 feet deep. The state paid $90,000 for the piece, and Henry himself called it the largest sculpture commissioned in Illinois history when it was built, per the same report. Henry, who died on Nov. 1, 2022, became internationally recognized for his enormous abstract constructions, with his work installed in public spaces across the United States, China, Germany, South Korea and England.
A Collection With Deep Chicago Roots
Joining Bridgeport are four additional works by artists Jerry Peart, Barry Tinsley and Robert Winslow. Peart's Jellyroll Man, a painted aluminum piece measuring 8 feet tall and 6 feet deep, previously stood alongside Bridgeport and Tinsley's Urban Moraine at the Thompson Center. Urban Moraine, by Tinsley, rounds out the trio of pieces with Chicago ties.
The Smithsonian American Art Museum describes Tinsley as well known for his large steel and concrete sculptures found in museum, private and corporate collections.
Why the Art Left Chicago
The Thompson Center's art collection scattered after Google bought the state-owned building for $105 million in 2022 and closed it to prepare for redevelopment, with reopening expected in 2028. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Bridgeport ended up on joint loan to three Rockford institutions — its Art Museum, Convention & Visitors Bureau and the city itself. Other Thompson Center pieces scattered elsewhere: Richard Hunt's Illinois River Landscape went to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources headquarters in Springfield, while Jean Dubuffet's Monument with Standing Beast was disassembled and sent to a state warehouse as officials searched for a permanent home, per the Sun-Times. Google has separately announced plans for artist Sanford Biggers to create Vector, a 30-foot-tall sculpture for the redeveloped Thompson Center plaza, according to the company.
GoRockford President and CEO John Groh said the city is honored to have Bridgeport, and added that his organization hopes to add more public art to Davis Park in the future, Rock River Current reported. Rockford Art Museum Executive Director and Chief Curator Carrie Johnson said she values bringing art into everyday life in public spaces. Mayor Janessa Neal said the collection continues Rockford's public-art tradition and creates a new destination in the city, per the same report.
A Riverfront Project Years in the Making
The installation arrives amid a broader, long-running transformation of Davis Park. Reports on the project's price tag have varied: MyStateline described an $11 million renovation that began in 2022 and was split into two phases in 2025, while the Rockford Register Star characterized the undertaking as a $15.5 million reimagining. City Administrator Todd Cagnoni said the project needed to be divided into phases, with the second phase covering buildings, after the lowest construction bid for site improvements came in at $7,613,842.60 from Stenstrom Excavation — higher than officials had expected, prompting a committee to lay the matter over for reevaluation. The first phase was expected to include grass areas, a playground and a skate park, with an anticipated opening by mid-August.
Part of the new sculpture installation was made possible by funds left in the estate of Diane Voneida, who served as Rockford's director of community development during Davis Park's original development and construction in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Voneida died Nov. 6, 2018, at age 74, according to Rock River Current.
More Public Art Still Waiting in the Wings
Not every piece tied to Rockford's public-art story has found its place yet. Pulling Together, created in 1976 to commemorate the U.S. Bicentennial and depicting Rockford founders Germanicus Kent, Lewis Lemon and Thatcher Blake, has sat in storage since 2015, after construction removed the South Main Street Y-shaped curve where it once stood. It's planned for installation along the Rock River south of the railroad trestle, near the city's original founding site, though no finalized restoration or installation timeline has been set.
Other Rockford sculptures predate the Thompson Center collection entirely. Cape Variations, donated to the Rockford Park District by R. Robert Funderburg, has been on public display at Beattie Park in downtown Rockford since 1973 — a reminder that the city's relationship with large-scale public art stretches back decades before Bridgeport ever made the trip from Chicago.
