ROME — Rome Art And Community Center, 308 W. Bloomfield St., has added its eighth and final sculpture to its outdoor Sound Garden, located on the grounds of the art center, with a pathway guiding visitors currently under construction.

RACC Executive Director Jason Tockey said the goal is to have the pathway around the outdoor sculptures complete before snowfall, if not sooner. “There will be concrete pads around the structures so if visitors are using a wheelchair, they’ll be able to roll right up to and around the sculpture for easier access,” Tockey explained. “We also plan to have benches and decorative stones.”

Introduced and started in 2019, the plan was to install one to two musical elements to the Sound Garden each year. The city’s Building and Grounds crew have installed the elements of the garden and are working on the surrounding trail. The garden’s first element was a set of four musical flowers. Each flower came with an attached mallet that when used on the peddles, creates various musical notes. Now there is a xylophone-type structure and other various elements.

“We’ll be starting on our Imagination Way next year,” said Tockey, adding that the Imagination Way will be comprised of sculptures that will appeal to the visual sense.

So the garden “will have visual elements in addition to sound,” he said.

More is yet to come at RACC in the fall and into 2023 when the actual building celebrates is 100-year anniversary — “when the first cornerstone of the building went in,” Tockey said.

Prior to its purchase by the City of Rome, RACC was known as the Carpenter home. A prime example of English Tudor architecture, Arthur F. Carpenter, one of Rome’s most successful industrialists and owner of Rome Metallic Bedsted Co., and his wife Grace, built the house in 1923.

And more news is yet to come concerning plans for RACC’s 55-year Anniversary Gala, to be celebrated at the art center starting at 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 9.