Georgetown College's Outdoor Public Sculpture Collection

An overview prepared by Cortney Thorn, art history major

Class 2010

 

Public Sculpture is an easily accessible form of art. Many outdoor sculptures are made site specific; in these cases an artist will work within the space and the community to develop a piece that fits the surroundings.

            Public art is a term used to describe any art that can be accessed by the public. The most common forms of outdoor sculpture include monuments, memorials and statuaries. However, towards the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first centuries there has been a large increase in the amount of conceptual art placed within communities.

            Because one of the goals of public art is for it to be on a site of physical public domain, most of these works are located outside, where they are accessible for all to see.  Most of these public art works are made from materials produced to be durable. This is to provide long life to the structure, withstand the elements and avoid the effects vandalism of the community may have.

Overview:

Georgetown College currently has several sculptures located on the campus. Seven belong to an organized outdoor sculpture exhibition, however six permanent works are also on view.

Live. Learn, Believe Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition

            Goal: To create an aesthetic venue for education, interaction, and recognition for the arts

            -Consists of seven sculptures of various media

            -Most were installed in the summer 2007

            -Each sculpture was originally meant to be on campus for between 12-18 months however many of them have had their loans extended.

            -A work is intended to be replaced when one leaves 

            -Richard Spears, a 1957 graduate of Georgetown College and a member of the Georgetown College Foundation Board, funded the initial exhibition.

Forces of Nature: Hurricanes and Slinkys

Leticia Bajuyo, Hanover, IN

2007; on view from the summer 2007 through summer 2010

PVC tubing, Steel, Paint, and Artificial Grass

            -Leticia’s art has a reoccurring theme of questions about happiness and perspective.

            -She has been inspired by hurricanes and slinkys and how between the two the complex is simplified and the simple is complex.

-The artist lives in the Midwest where hurricanes do not happen so the diagrams of circular forms showing the development of the storm, make it appear very controllable.

            -The slinkys seem so simple, yet the physics of the spring, and the limits of how much stress either side could take make it complex.

            -The sculptures in the exhibition combine these two visuals with a peaceful, but artificial, grassy eye of the storm.            

            -There are 6 works crossing both sides of Memorial Dr.

            -Bajuyo is an associate professor of art at Hanover College.

The Sword of Damocles

Robert McConaghy, Cincinnati, OH

2007; on view since summer 2007

Rope 30’x4’x 1”

            -His artistic process is based on immersion and familiarity with a particular context.

            -Simple forms, beautiful lines and gentle symmetry characterize his sculptures.

            - He wants the viewer to have a pleasant and stimulating experience: and his sculpture is not meant to tell the audience anything limited or obvious.    

-Damocles is a figure from a single Greek moral legend concerning The Sword of Damocles

            -The name The Sword of Damocles is frequently used in arts and literature to allude to this tale. The story is also used to denote the sense of foreboding engendered by a precarious situation

The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors

Valerie Sullivan Fuchs, Selbyville, KY

2007; on view since summer 2007

8 Thermal Digital Prints on Metal (located on electrical poles along College Street from the Wilson Art Building to Anderson Hall)

            -The artist makes the observation that that “electric light and its energy permeate every aspect of our daily lives so much that we barely notice its    profound influence, presence and power over our lives.”

            - The images are Kentucky Mountains printed in white, black, and the colors of white light stripped bare

            -These works are printed on metal or Duratram.

            -Her work, installed on electric poles, is focused on making the invisible more visible.

            -The title of the piece is also taken from a Marcel Duchamp piece.

            -Duchamp’s piece was worked on for four years and claimed unfinished. The  piece is a painting on glass, using lead wire to outline shapes, dust, oils and varnish for colors. There are two sections, the top part being the bride’s section while the bottom belongs to the bachelors.

            -Initially the sculpture consisted of four light boxes installed along Jackson Street. Those have been removed and the thermal prints, installed along     College Street, are part of the College's Permanent Collection of art.

Crossing (after Whitman)

by Allison Warren, Urbana-Campaign, IL

2007; on view from the summer 2007 through summer 2010

17 Granite Stones with Silk-Screen text.

            -Warren interprets the title Live, Learn, Believe through the words of Walt Whitman and his poem, Song of the Open Road.

            -This poem is a ballad about having the courage to take on new risks, new ideas and then to learn, live, and belief in oneself.

            -The stones read

                        I take to the open road ask no fortune I am good fortune

                        The Lesson is reception not preference or denial

                        Open road you serve me with latent unseen existences

                        Public road you express me better than anyone can

                        No limits or imaginary lines my own master total absolute

                        Here is the test of wisdom certainty in excellence of all

                        From my empowered gates here come flow from the soul

                        Here rises fluid character happiness pervades open air

                        Travel finds what never tries divine tings words cannot tell

                        Health wonder curiosity come one with earth the elements

                        The days must happen to you arrive where you were destined

                        Belong to fellow company broad with universal breadth

                        The universe is an open road sees everything that you reach

                        Go forth to something grand orever alive forever forward

                        Everyone come forth now this path was built for you

                        My call is a battle call fruition comes from structure                                    

                        Now I offer my hand to you give yourself the road ahead.

Pass the Lace through the Loop

by Daniel Graham, Georgetown, KY

2007; replaced in 2008

Wood, Steel, and Paper

            -This work illustrates the symbiotic relationship found in academia.        

            -One side is meant to represent teaching and the other side learning.

            -The sculpture illustrates the process of learning is given and taken by both parties involved.

            -When one participant is grounded the other is free to gain a different prospective of their environment.

            -Assistant professor of art, Georgetown College.

Waiting in Silence

by Greg Mueller, Bloomsburg, PA

2005; on view since 2007

Steel, Tin Roofing, Kasota Limestone

            -This piece proposes that sculpture can provide a focus for contemplation.

-The artist believes that by virtue of object placement, his compositions define space.

            -This work also celebrates the inherent spiritual qualities of cast and discarded metal which enhance the viewer’s contemplative sensitivities.

            -The view is lead into the space by virtue of steps and the portal, culminating in a resting place for quiet introspection.

            -Mueller is an assistant professor of art at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania

            -Sculpture donated to Georgetown College by the artist; forms part of the College's Permanent Collection of art

Transit of Venus

by Robert Huff. Akron, OH

2004; on view since summer 2007

Limestone, Red Sandstone, Steel, Gravel

            -This work is created in response to the rare astrological phenomenon called the “transit of Venus”

            -During this event, which occurs in an alternating pattern of 120 years and 8 years, the planet Venus passes in front of the Sun as seen from Earth.

            -The last passage was in the year 2004 and the next will be in the year 2012.

            -The artist intends the work to be on view through 2012

            -Huff is a professor of art at the University of Akron.

Live.Learn.Believe Sculpture previously on view:

Who we are or want to be

by Jonathan Auger, Germantown, TN

2007

Painted Steel

2007, on view from the summer 2009 through 2010 (near Cralle Student Center)

Up and Over

by Wayne Trapp

2005

Stainless steel; 8 x 5 x 4 feet

2007, on view from the summer 2007 through 2008 (near Cralle Student Center)

Other Sculptures Exhibited on Campus  (in order of installation)

Untitled

by Michael (Mickey) Maxson, Lexington, KY

Installed in the 1980s (specific date unknown)

Painted Steel

-Located in the west yard of Asher Science Center. 

Extricate

by Brent Sams, Georgetown, KY

1997

Stainless Steel

            -Created by Georgetown College alum

            -Located in front of the Wilson Art Building 

L’Chaim

by Dennis Whitcopf, Atlanta, GA.

2002

Indiana Limestone and Cor-ten Steel 15x 4x 2’

-Commissioned by Georgetown College in 2002, it was intended to be the        first in a series of public sculptures known as the Walk of Faiths; however, this was the only work ever installed.

            -This piece is a stylized Hebrew symbol.

            -The shape is based off of the first two letters in “L’Chaim” the Jewish   blessing meaning “to life.”

In Memory of the Lives Lost on September 11, 2001

September 11, 2002

Flowering Dogwood tree surrounded by mulch, small boulders.

            -Given by AGS

            -The text for this work reads “In Memory of the Lives Lost on September 11, 2001 Given by AGS, September 11, 2002”

Mr. Georgetown Tiger

2009

Bronze

            -Kim Summers was a cherished friend of the Grrr… Tiger Bands, Tiger Athletics and the entire Campus community.

            -Given by friends of Richard “Kim” Summers in his honor

Stephen D. Elrod Memorial

by Amanda B. Matthews

2010

Bronze on limestone plinth

-The bronze sculpture embodies an angelic form expressing forward and upward movement and quiet introspection.

-Designed by Amanda B. Matthews and fabricated at Prometheus Foundry in the spring 2010, the sculpture is bronze with stainless steel armature situated on a rough-cut limestone base.

-Inside the wings are fingerprints of family members Judy and Jon Elrod and Celtic crosses that bear the initials SDE in remembrance of Stephen. 

-The sculpture is intended as a synthesis of thoughts, comments, emotions, and loving epitaphs from family and friends of Stephen; Biblical accounts of the early Christian martyr; and historical meaning of the name Stephen.

-Surrounding the sculpture are landscaping features that are intended to transform the space from a pass-through area into a gathering place.

-Plantings include: Crimson Pygmy Barberry, Nandina bushes, Snow Fountain Weeping Cherry, Knockout Roses, and Liriope. 

-The garden was created by Rick, Judy, and Jon Elrod in April 2010. The sculpture was installed in May 2010 dedicated on Friday, May 14 of that year.

The Outdoor Sculpture Collection at Georgetown College is free and open to the public. Please come for a visit. For more information or to arrange a tour, please contact Laura Stewart, Gallery Director and Curator of Collections: 502.863.8399 or email the galleries: galleries@georgetowncollege.edu