The original design for "Arg Matey" was drawn by Syndey, age 9, of Chisago Lake Area Library, a branch of East Central Regional Library. She wrote, " I named him Arg Matey because he belongs to a piraite. He see's land and said arg matey but it's really land ho." The sculpture is part of the East Central Regional Library's Kids Design Glass project. Funded with money from Minnesota's Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, the project started with a Summer Reading Program art contest for kids 5-10 years old. One child's drawing was chosen from each of East Central Library's fourteen branches. Sculptor Anthony Michaud-Scorza, of Cambridge, Minnesota, then turned each drawing into a kid-inspired blown-glass sculpture.