Suggestive sculpture on Main Street has small Iowa town talking

AMES, IOWA — Some residents in Ames, Iowa are calling for the city to remove a sculpture - saying it's inappropriate.

One piece of public art on Main Street is making its way into selfies, for a different reason than others.

"I think it's disgraceful," says Peg Lowary, "there's nothing sacred anymore."

Ryan Buck agrees it's "definitely a provocative and potentially suggestive pose."

At one time, Ames leaders talked about removing the sculpture called "Wide Open Mind" after receiving emails and calls from residents and out-of-towners that called it inappropriate and not family friendly.

"We were disappointed in the artist for not showing us both sides of the piece," says Kerry Anne Dixon, the chairwoman of the Ames Public Art Commission.

City leaders say the artist, Kimber Fiebiger, from Minneapolis, only sent in a picture of the backside-- not the front-- before it was selected for their annual outdoor sculpture exhibition.

"It's not pornographic or anything like that," says Fiebiger.  "As a sculptor, I don't see nakedness.  I just see sort of shape."

Fiebiger says the woman is doing a yoga pose called "horse."

The back she says is like an onion, "peeling away layers of yourself to get--  to get like an inner knowledge of what you are."

Kristin Roach owns the tea shop across the street.  She says, "I still don't really see what the big deal is...That we shouldn't be ashamed of our bodies."

The city plans to keep it up for now.  The sculpture is on loan from Fiebiger.

It will be taken down and replaced with a new piece next May.

Cox Media Group