Salina sculptor Rich Bergen, left, shakes hands with Larry Fief after unveiling his “Wheels of Commerce” sculpture in the lawn of the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce. The sculpture’s debut Thursday kicked off a citywide art project in Salina.

Salina ? Salinans got their first look at the kick-off piece to the Salina SculptureTour at the Salina Chamber of Commerce on Thursday.

The 400-pound piece, “Wheels of Commerce,” was created by local artist Rich Bergen in four months and is an interactive piece made with mill plates.

“It is a great piece in the fact that everything is home-grown,” said Mike Hoppock, chairman of the Salina SculptureTour committee. “I think it is a piece that makes a statement. You can’t drive by without noticing it.”

“Wheels of Commerce” is the first sculpture in the tour and Hoppock said 22 other sculptures will be put up in May.

“It is a two-prong approach,” Hoppock said. “We want to educate the community on different mediums of art, but we are also wanting to help draw people to downtown Salina.”

Bergen’s sculpture features four mill plates on a metal pole, with metal wire connecting the plates. Two more mill plates make up the top that has welding rods and wire designed to make noise.

Bergen said the idea for the sculpture came from the mill plates given to him by Phyll Klima, executive director of Salina Downtown Inc. The mill plates were donated by ADM.

“To me, the mill plates looked like a coin, and if you flipped it in the air, it would have a reflection and spin,” Bergen said. “As I was developing that further, I thought of some of the earlier pieces I had done that included sound and kinetic motion.”

To incorporate the sound and motion, Bergen put a crank onto the bottom of the statue for people to turn.

“It makes a kind of chime sound like you are making money,” Bergen said. “I tried other material in there and some were too heavy, and it made a real clunking sound. I wanted it to be like change when it bounces on a table.”

The first person to test out Bergen’s crank on the device was 5-year-old Hunter Mowery. Hunter cranked the piece several times.

Bergen said he tried to make the sculpture look free-flowing despite its 400 pound weight.

Dennis Lauver, president and CEO of the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce, said the piece fits in well with Salina.

“It is something done by a local artist, on a pedestal made by a local company and using materials donated by a local business. The theme is something that fueled this entire company.”

The piece’s base was made by Grain Belt Supply in Salina.

With Bergen’s piece kicking off the tour, Hoppock said more pieces will join in the near future.

“We sent out calls for artists around the nation,” Hoppock said. “They will send in art through Nov. 30, and it will be juried. The ones who win will be placed in May 2011.”

Hoppock said a total of 22 pieces will be installed from Mulberry to Ash streets along Santa Fe Avenue.

“In one day, we will set up 22,” Hoppock said. “They will be up from May to April (2012), then we will take them down and do the process again. It is going to be a rotating art collection.”

Bergen said he is excited to see the results of the sculpture tour and hopes to have another piece in the next collection.

“I’ve been to other cities with a sculpture walk, and I wonder why we don’t have it in Salina,” Bergen said. “When they said they were going to do it and asked me to be part of it, I said I would.”

Lauver said he hopes the tour will draw people to downtown Salina so they will “linger” and visit more businesses in the city.

“This whole concept of a SculptureTour Salina is a citizen-lead, bottom-up initiative of a dozen people who said ‘we have an idea,’ ” Lauver said. “It is not something led by government or using a bunch of tax dollars. It is a bunch of private citizens and the private sector who thinks we can help the downtown be a more vibrant place.”