Art bench stolen from greenbelt

The Idaho Falls Arts Council needs the community’s help to find a missing art bench, taken from the greenbelt.

The art benches have been helping make the downtown area a little more beautiful for about a year.

Carrie Scheid, who worked for the Idaho Falls Arts Council, headed up the initiative to install those decorative seats last September. It’s especially painful for her to see one disappear.

“To think someone came along and stole it just breaks my heart,” Scheid said.

The missing piece is called “Al-Lure.”

It was designed by an art instructor at BYU-Idaho to look like a giant fishing lure.

“This was my personal favorite bench, the fishing lure bench,” Scheid said.

The empty concrete foundation was discovered Wednesday afternoon by a Parks and Recreation employee.

Scheid says this isn’t the first time an art bench has been vandalized.

A bench shaped like a canoe had been pushed from its foundation and covered in graffiti, and another bench used to have birds on its decorative branches.

“Putting these art benches on the greenbelt — it’s kind of a signature about Idaho Falls — about who we are and what we are about,” Scheid said. “And to think someone went in and desecrated it just astonishes me.”

Each bench cost about $3,000 to install.

The one that was stolen was paid for by the artist’s family, with help from the Sandpiper Restaurant.

The Arts Council is offering a $500 dollar reward for any information that leads to the bench, while the Idaho Falls Police Department is working on an official report.
If you have any information, call Crimestoppers at 522-1983.