Winston-Salem Asks Residents to Vote on Locations for Five New 12-Foot Dandelion Sculptures

Five 12-foot dandelion sculptures are coming to Winston-Salem this year, and residents—not just city officials—can help decide which neighborhoods get them. The vote is the final phase of the Invasive Hope public art project, following the towering dandelions already installed along Salem Parkway and funded through the 2018 bond referendum. The city and Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Public Art Commission are asking residents to choose preferred locations through a survey available on the City of Winston-Salem website and announced on the city's official Facebook page.

Three monumental steel-and-aluminum dandelion sculptures were installed overnight on May 28, 2026, along Salem Parkway as the first phase of Invasive Hope, depicting the dandelion's full life cycle from yellow blooms to white seed heads. The installation includes a 40-foot-tall dandelion puff near the Peters Creek Parkway interchange and two 12-foot yellow dandelion bouquets on both sides of the Church Street bridge. A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Dandelion Public Art Project was held on June 9, 2026, at 10 AM at the Twin City Trail near Truist Stadium.

Resident choices will directly determine which Winston-Salem neighborhoods receive the new installations—a test of whether the City of Arts and Innovation identity is shared across the city or concentrated in familiar cultural corridors.

The city survey lists seven potential sites for residents to choose from for the five new sculptures: Little Creek Park, 698 Foxcroft Dr.; Minnie Lee Davis Community Center, 2020 N.E. 14th St.; Parkland Park, 1660 Brewer Rd.; Salem Lake Memorial Garden, 815 Salem Lake Dr.; Sedge Garden Park, 401 Robbins Rd.; Silas Creek Greenway, 900 Yorkshire Rd.; and Stuart & Emma Thomas Memorial Trail at Crossnore, 1001 Reynolda Rd. The candidates span parks, community centers, trails, and greenways, offering geographic diversity across the city.

Winston-Salem's 2018 bond referendum, approved by voters on November 6, 2018, authorized $122 million across five bond categories, financed by a four-cent property tax increase. The Streets and Sidewalks category passed with 53,756 Yes votes (66.01%) versus 27,679 No votes (33.99%). Within that $43.7 million category, approximately $3.5 million was allocated for Business 40 corridor enhancements, including public art foundations and installations on seven bridges, along with noise walls, lighting, and landscaping. The Salem Parkway dandelion sculptures were funded by approximately $1.05 million from that allocation.

The name Invasive Hope reflects the dandelion's dual nature as both an often-dismissed invasive weed and a resilient, edible plant that carries a message of enduring hope—symbolizing persistence, grit, and the community's ability to overcome adversity.

Chad Cheek, formerly of the firm Elephant in the Room, served as lead artist for Invasive Hope, selected through a competitive national call for artists. Cheek's collaborators included Adam Sebastian of STITCH Design Shop, Drew Gerstmyer (architect), and Andrew Viator of Viator Design and Construction.