Ingleside Club requested an $800 grant from the Grand Avenue Greenway Committee for a community bench sculpture that will cost between $3,500 and $4,000 as a celebration of the club’s centennial.

The bench is scheduled to be installed on the corner outside of Neill Public Library in Pullman, said Committee Chair Rosalie Harms.

Harms said the Ingleside Club, established in 1917, has spearheaded this project. She said the club came to the committee with an $800 grant and asked if they could help them build a bench.

Harms said the committee had money they could add to the grant to make the project more than a simple bench.

“Well that’s easy enough, we can do a bench for them,” she said. “The more we talked, the more we thought it might be more exciting to do some sort of sculpture bench.”

Hams said the committee enlisted the help of local artist Shelly Gilmore to design and construct the sculpture. It has already been made and is now awaits approval from the Pullman Arts Commission and City Council.

The artist will present the sculpture during the Pullman Artfest on May 17, Harms said.

The sculpture will be called the “Bookmobile” because it will have metal books suspended on chains surrounding the bench, Harms said.

There will be different pieces of the sculpture, including a 4-foot long bench and another 2-and-a-half-foot long bench next to it.

She said precautions will be made to ensure the bench is safe and up to code. The bench will also be sealed so it will weather nicely and graffiti can be cleaned off easily, but Harms said she hopes that feature is not necessary.

“It is a very well thought out sculpture piece that is going to make sense,” she said. “It is also indigenous to the Palouse area.”

Harms said the bench will be a good addition to the Pullman community and it is in-line with the goal of the committee to add more art to the city.

“We just sort of escalated it to the point where I think everyone is going to be very excited when they see the completed project,” Harms said.