ART

Sculptor John Raimondi has been hired to produce the tallest bronze sculpture in North America: a six-story study of two sandhill cranes to stand near Omaha’s Eppley Airfield. The Omaha Airport Authority commissioned the $460,000 work, which will depict the birds in their ritual mating dance. “So we have longevity, integrity, solidity and happiness. They are graceful and free. Those qualities are representative of Nebraska,” said Raimondi, who is known in Nebraska for “Erma’s Desire,” a steel girder abstract that stands at an Interstate 80 rest stop near Grand Island. It drew controversy before it was even installed because some considered the name risque.