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Our beautifully landscaped 258-acre campus is constantly being enhanced with the addition of outdoor sculpture. This public art acquisition program, initiated four years ago by Arts Coordinator Marilyn J. Fox, addressed not only the campus’ interest in creating a visually interesting environment for our academic community, but our interest in contemporary culture, including art. A biennial outdoor sculpture exhibit affords the campus and community the opportunity of viewing new work by local and regional sculptors. Our college has also been able to gain acquisitions, through endowments, purchases, gifts, and donations, with recommendations by our Fine Art Committee. |
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Our first sculpture acquisition through this program was the stainless steel work by Milan J. Kralik, Jr. of Quakertown, titled Solar Wings. Located at the campus entrance, the work encompassed the concept of entering a place of learning, where students are safe to achieve, question, and explore. | ||
| Later, new works were added, including two pieces, both of welded steel rods, by Robert Koch: one a series of Three Spheres located at the Thun Library purchased by Irv and Lois Cohen for the campus and another titled Waterfall, sited at our residence halls, donated by the artist.
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| We have also been fortunate to work with and purchase art from alumni of Penn State University, including Joe Mooney (’77). His work titled Glide (stainless steel) is located at the Franco Building. |
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Another example is the sculpture titled Men-en-thol, made from mill stone and steel, by Ted Ormai (’70). | ||
| Artist Kevin Forest (’80) assisted in curatorial work in the 2007 exhibition, and now has his work titled Sailing By The Moon sited at our Alumni Pavilion.
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Other work recently added to our collection includes a delightful kinetic sculpture called Wind Shear, created by Jeff Kahn. Made of aluminum, this delicate piece is balanced to within one gram and moves on the slightest breeze. | ||
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An organic and lovely bronze sculpture titled Arabesque by Mark Pettagrew graces the south entrance to the Franco Building. | ||
| Numerous other works, including a welded steel Nittany Lion by Elios Kyriokos, several abstract pieces by Leon Gerst, and two pieces that were created in honor of our history with the Wyomissing Polytechnic Institute including In Memory of Hanns Graham and Eternal Flame are also part of our collection. |
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In honor of our 50th Anniversary last year, local artist Bev Leviner created a mural mosaic wall at our Perkins Student Center. The mosaic commemorates our college’s 50-year history. |
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| Unique to our campus is the work Two of ‘em, created by internationally known sculptor Steven Siegel. Creating a large scale work of art in only four days requires many volunteers and assistants. Using over 175 man hours, campus bamboo and recycling, we made it happen in record time. We are proud and grateful to our students and staff that gave their time, muscles and good humor to make this project a success. We are especially grateful to our facilities staff and student volunteers. |
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