Famed Fresno sculpture that survived fire and graffiti has found a new permanent home

Famed Fresno artist Clement Renzi’s sculpture “A Day in the Park” has finally found a permanent home:

Storyland in Roeding Park in Fresno.

The iconic piece that depicts children and adults playing in a park was removed from the wall of a former bank building turned event center at Shields Avenue and Highway 41 in January 2023 after a fire destroyed the building.

Miraculously, the 288-foot-square-foot terra cotta sculpture that was installed in 1981 survived the flames and multiple coats of spray paint from vandals after the fire.

City officials planned to relocate the sculpture to the terminal expansion at Fresno Yosemite International Airport, but that didn’t work out. There was also talk of moving the sculpture to the Fresno Art Museum, but that proved too costly.

As the city searched for a suitable spot to install the sculpture, the art piece sat in a warehouse, disassembled into individual panels and stacked on 18 pallets.

Adding to the urgency to find a home for the art was that the city now owned the sculpture. The owner of the event center gifted it to the city.

Storyland a ‘perfect venue’ for Renzi artwork

Bruce Batti, board chair of the nonprofit Storyland/Playland, was following the saga of Renzi’s sculpture when he was approached by the city about possibly giving it a home.

“When they reached out, we were more than interested,” Batti said. “As someone who has lived in Fresno most of my life, I am thrilled that piece has been saved. Not only is this (Storyland) a perfect venue for it, but we also get to showcase one of Fresno’s own.”

The piece will be installed near the ticket booth and inside a fenced area so it will be protected when the park closes.

Jenny Renzi, daughter of Clement, said she was pleased it will be displayed in a place for children.

“My dad would have really appreciated that,” she said. “It is what the piece is about: Children having fun.”

She said her father created many sculptures, but this was one his largest. Each panel of terra cotta had to be attached to a frame and then attached to the building’s wall.

One of her father’s friends, Sal Esqueda, a craftsman and fellow artist, contacted her after hearing about the fire. He helped install the tiles 43 years ago, Renzi said.

“He was a perfectionist like my father,” she said. “They had a nice relationship, and I am happy he got back in touch.”

Renzi said she gave Esqueda some of her father’s old tools as thanks.

Notable Clement Renzi art pieces in Fresno

The timeline for when “A Day in the Park” will be installed at Storyland is still being worked out, said City Attorney Andrew Janz.

“Renzi’s art is part of Fresno’s history,” Janz said. “You can see his works all over our City. It was important to me to preserve his work so that our children and future generations may enjoy it, too.”

Notable Renzi pieces in Fresno include his 1964 sculpture “The Visit” and 1973’s “The Yokuts Man,” both on Fulton Street in downtown Fresno; a 1983 statue of boxer Young Corbett III in front of Selland Arena on M Street; his 1968 sculpture “Brotherhood of Man” on the M Street side of Courthouse Park; “The New Book,” a 1964 piece at the Fresno County Library’s main branch on Mariposa Street; 1970’s “Christ the Healer” at Saint Agnes Medical Center in northeast Fresno; and many others.

The installation and graffiti removal will be handled by Southern California art conservator Andrea Morse and her team. Morse is familiar with Fresno’s public art, having worked with the city previously.

She’s been impressed with the city’s attention to maintaining its public artwork, which includes sculptures by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alexander Calder and Renzi.

“The city realizes they have something really special and that it is important to take care of it,” she said. “They know it can enhance their city but it also has to be protected and maintained.”

Renzi was born in 1925 in Farmersville and later served in the U.S. Navy in the closing days of World War II. He attended the University of California, Berkeley and later studied at the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria, and in New York before he and his wife, singer and teacher Dorothy Renzi, returned to California and settled in Fresno. He died in 2009.