“I’ve been here before… but tonight my husband is playing,” Ellickson said as the concert began. “He plays the tuba in the Mid-Michigan (Festival) Orchestra, he’s played his whole life.”

The concert featured an unveiling of a sculpture and special donor appreciation— which Clinton County Arts Council entertainment committee chair Bill Tennant said he has been looking forward to for the last 10 years.

“We’re calling the concert our special gala donor recognition appreciation concert,” Tennant said. “It (was) great to finally get to the point where we (could) recognize all the people that made that dream of the Performance Shell come true.”

After directing an orchestra too large for the previous Shell built in the ’30s, Tennant, who headed the Shell’s construction efforts, said the idea for the Shell, built in 2004, came after he and his wife visited Hudson, Wis.

“The Minnesota Orchestra was doing a concert at this beautiful shell in Hudson and it dawned on me then that if the town of Hudson could have a nice shell and invite major groups to come and perform then there’s no reason why it couldn’t happen in St. Johns,” Tennant said. “So I… met with the Clinton County Arts Council. We put a committee together… raised over $160,000. We started the construction in 2002 and in 2004 we had our first season with the Shell.”

At this season’s 10th anniversary concert, small donors of the Performance Shell were recognized with plaques and the names of major donors were displayed on the base of a statue by MSU alumnus Timothy Higgins.

“What I was asked to do was bring something together that would symbolize the city of St. Johns, the history, its roots, the music and the arts,” Higgins said.

After taking in everything that St. Johns was known for, Higgins came up with a sculpture he calls Music and Mint.

“The base of it is like a stylized staff made out of an iron metal, which is kind of like an earth color so it’s supposed to be a staff which music is written on and also like a plowed field book,” Higgins said. “Above that is a steel mint bud because St. Johns is known as the mint city because a lot of the city’s farmers grew mint in the area. Also on the statue is a large treble clef. The statue represents the culture being based on agricultural reach and music.”

When the Shell’s construction first began, The Clinton County Arts Council’s set out to create something that would unify their community— a goal Tennant said has come to fruition.

“We’ve had thousands of people over the last 10 years attend concerts at the Shell and it really has changed the life here in St. Johns on Wednesday night,” Tennant said. “Our purpose was to raise the quality of life in our Mid-Michigan area and bring our community together and so far the Shell has done that.”