ALTAMONT — Altamont may one day have a permanent hiker — cast in bronze — seated across from the village green.

“It’s not going to be just a garden-variety statue that’s quieting the mind but something that really engages you and gets you thinking,” said Jodi Novak Wey, who is spearheading the project.

As an officer for the not-for-profit Historic Altamont Inc., she applied for a $50,000 grant from Albany County. The county recently announced grants totaling over $700,000 awarded to 28 art-focused projects.

Historic Altamont received $25,000, which Wey says will cover the design phase as funds are raised and more grants are applied for.

In 2023, Historic Altamont received $50,000 in federal pandemic funds through Albany County. The group spent $20,000 hiring a firm to map a network of trails around the village and is spending the remaining $30,000 to build a kiosk that will serve as an end point for the Long Path.

The path begins in Manhattan near the George Washington Bridge and wends its way north, to the Helderberg escarpment. A trail is being developed to reach the center of Altamont where the kiosk will welcome hikers and inform them of village resources.

Jeff Thomas, who owns a half-dozen properties in the village, agreed to a 30-year lease for the kiosk on property right across Park Street from Orsini Park next to the parking lot that was built for the now-empty KeyBank.

The lease for the 12-by-18-foot parcel was signed last November, David Bourque, president of Historic Altamont, told The Enterprise, and will cost just a dollar a year.

The kiosk will have six panels, Bourque said, with one panel dedicated to the Long Path and another dedicated to Altamont Community Tradition. Local businesses will be able to leave brochures at the kiosk, he said.

On June 23, a groundbreaking ceremony for the kiosk was held, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for Sept. 27. Wey hopes to have an 18-inch model of the sculpture completed by Sept. 27 “so people can actually see it in a more tangible form.”

“Our hiking friend,” said Bourque of the planned statue, “will provide an Instagram moment” for walkers completing the Long Path.

He also said, “It’s going to cost three times what the kiosk cost.”

Wey is currently assembling a committee to interview sculptors who will create sketches of a statue. “If we can’t get to the finish line,” she said of raising $80,000, “we certainly are going to give it a try.”

Wey was inspired by the statues she saw as she walked the Camino de Santiago on the cusp of her 50th birthday. The trail, which leads to a shrine for the apostle James, was first followed by pilgrims in medieval times but is now popular with hikers, cyclists, and tour groups.

Wey made the month-long journey by herself, walking 12 to 14 miles a day for 30 days, spending her nights in a series of pensions, family-owned guest houses, which she described as similar to B&Bs.

Wey, who is an emergency veterinarian, said, “I was able to get away from work commitments, family commitments.”

She said of the statues she saw along the way, “They added so much to the experience of walking a long trek and just a reflective experience, the spiritual journey, the physical journey, and the challenge. It really made the whole experience more magical to just experience humanity through the form of art … public art installations that dotted the path and made it even more exciting to reach the next destination, the next small town.”

Wey wrote in her grant application to the county, “Public art has the ability to capture our attention, electrify our spirit, and elevate our humanity.”

She also wrote of the proposed statue, “While set on no specific gender, age, or face in mind for the hiker, the sculpture would capture the spirit of a well-worn hiker, whose thoughtful and serene expression hints at their inexhaustible wit.”

Her proposal pictured several statues of hikers, including David Annand’s The Man with Sore Feet, installed in 2020 at the end of West Highland Way in Fort William, Scotland, and Kristin Kokkin’s Queen Sonja, seated on a boulder, rucksack by her side, in Oslo, Norway.

Wey envisions a life-sized figure in Altamont called Journey at Rest. 

“It’s a hiker that is worn but extremely resilient, and has this look of, ‘I’m tired. I just did a really long adventure, but my mind is not tired. I’m engaged. I’m reflecting’ … It’s just kind of a positive message of the resilience of the human spirit.”

Wey went on, “We’re trying to find someone who can bring that to life … so it has a spark to it … just kind of witty humor.”

She has met with one sculptor who suggested including “little woodland creatures” and another who suggested portraying the first woman who completed the full end-to-end 350-mile Long Path.

“She is still alive and hiking … She’s 80,” said Wey.

Wey is not sure where the path to finding a sculptor will lead but concluded, “It’s just so exciting that Advance Albany County Alliance has given us this injection of support to get us started and to really make it more than just a pipe dream.”