KINSTON, N.C. — When collectors travel for their hobby, it is usually to an antique tractor show, toy show, museum, historic home or another collector’s site to view their collections.

 

Once in a while, art like the “Kinston’s Tobacco Barns” installation can represent agriculture as a one-of-a-kind farm “collectible.”

“Kinston’s Tobacco Barns” share the memory of the city’s rich tobacco history.

Tobacco history is noted in the area all the way back to 1759, when the General Assembly of North Carolina passed an act to establish three tobacco inspection warehouses in what was then Dobbs County. At the time, the area was under the control of the British and it was at the site of one of these warehouses that “Kingston” – which would later be shortened to Kinston – was originally established.

The named was given in honor of King George III of England.

The tobacco industry grew and in the Sept. 2, 1899, edition of the Kinston Free Press there is a reference to the Kinston Tobacco Market as “situated in the bright Tobacco Belt Kinston’s fame has gone out to every country as selling the finest, brightest tobaccos in the world. Strong corps of buyers and ample facilities make Kinston the best market.”

Jan Parson of the Kinston Chamber of Commerce said at one time, “Kinston was the foremost in the tobacco market and textile industry. We were once the location of 22 tobacco warehouses.”

Growing up on a tobacco farm, Parson remembers when the top-dollar tobacco was formed into a braid. In this part of North Carolina, they grew what was referred to as “golden leaf.” Today, once harvested, tobacco is just crushed together.

Kinston Community Art Council Executive Director Sandy Landis said the town has a huge art presence and it honored its tobacco history with Thomas Sayre’s sculpture installation. Sayre’s background of using art with the cooperation of Mother Nature and not leaving any debris behind made him the perfect sculptor for this agricultural art.

Sayre has massive sculptures in Canada, Asia, Istanbul, Turkey, Thailand and elsewhere in the United States, as well; he is referred to as an earthcast sculptor.

From Raleigh, Sayre was commissioned to design and build this massive project to pay homage to Kinston and Lenoir County’s agricultural and tobacco heritage. He used the soil as part of the process.

“The form and content of this sculpture comes from the rich agricultural heritage, which in no small part formed the town of Kinston,” he explained. “The sculpture refers to the distinctive proportions and shape of tobacco barns, which stand silently on the flat-furrowed fields around Kinston and eastern North Carolina.”

The sculpture was created from concrete that was cast directly into a mold cut from the earth, from furrows Sayre and helpers made that would have been like those of a tobacco field.

Earthcasting is a special process wherein reinforced concrete is placed into a mold cut into the earth. Steel rebar is used and the shape is dug into the ground using a backhoe and shovels.

The concrete was colored with iron oxide to match the soil’s hue.

After the concrete is poured, vibrated and leveled, it cures for a minimum of 28 days before digging the sculpture out. It took a crane to place the piece on the slab that had been braced and secured. There are seven barn façades. They are just under 30 feet tall and weigh more than 40,000 pounds each.

The barn doorways create a row, or tunnel, which spans about 300 feet. Located on the corner of Blount and Mitchell streets, the barn façades are where the Brooks Tobacco Warehouse once stood.

This project came from collaboration between SmART Kinston City Project Foundation and the Kinston Community Council for the Arts. Funding for the project came from the Arts Council’s public fund. In the near future, Sayre will be creating another piece called “White Gold,” which refers to the cotton industry. 

 

With tobacco no longer a viable industry in the Kinston area, the town has turned more to art and entertainment; by building sculptures like this, it connects the future to the town’s history.

Collectors do the same with the items they keep and cherish – so it could be said both the collector and this community have the same goal in preserving a part of agricultural history.