“Hatched Baby” having trouble finding home in La Crosse

A big blue baby is still an orphan with a temporary home at Myrick Park.

The clock is ticking for a La Crosse city committee, searching for a place to show off the 9-foot-high sculpture.

Members of the city’s arts board have until the middle of March to figure out where the Hatched Baby should go.

The sculpture of what is a blue baby coming out of a large egg is being stored at a Myrick Park shelter, but it has to be moved before park season begins April 1.

So far, nobody has agreed to take the piece by German artist Wolfgang Auer, who wants it displayed in La Crosse.

The Pump House board has not officially taken a vote on whether to display it, but there is already opposition to having the egg installed in a plaza behind the building — mostly because newlywed couples like posing for pictures in that courtyard.

The arts board is getting frustrated that it can’t find a location to display the baby in public.

“We’ve gone to the parks board,” Doug Weidenbach, who heads the arts board, said. “We’ve talked informally with the Pump House. As it stands now, we need to put our foot down and say, ‘We can only try so much.'”

The city board of public works also may be asked to find a spot for the Hatched Baby.