The four finalists for the University of Central Arkansas's Public Art for Alumni Circle Centennial Project will be on campus to present their original designs on Thursday, Sept. 27.
The public is invited to attend the one-hour presentations, which will begin at 9 a.m. in the board room of Wingo Hall. A 15-minute break will follow each presentation.
The designs will then be available for public viewing and comment in the Baum Gallery from Sept. 28-Oct. 28.
"These are really big-name artists, super big-name artists," said Dr. Gayle Seymour, associate dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication and chair of the university's Public Art Committee.
Making presentations will be Alice Adams, Jackie Ferrara, Barbara Grygutis and Andrew Leicester.
Adams, of New York City, has been making public art for the last 20 years and has examples in cities including Seattle, New York, Denver and San Antonio.
New York's Ferrara has been creating large-scale architectural and landscape works since the 1970s. Her work has been featured in numerous books and periodicals on public art.
Gygutis, who lives in Tucson, has been working in the field of public art for 25 years and has created more than 60 commissions throughout the United States and Canada.
Leicester, of Minneapolis, has been working internationally in public art since the 1970s and has won numerous awards for his public art projects.
Cliff Garten of Venice, Calif., was another finalist, but he pulled out of the competition last week.
The request for qualifications for the Centennial project drew submissions from 32 states. The project's goal is to transform Alumni Circle, the area bordered by Torreyson Library, Old Main and Harrin
Hall, into a pedestrian plaza, with artwork that will reference the history and traditions of the institution, highlight current achievements and articulate the Centennial theme, "New Vision, New Century".
The university launched a national design competition Jan. 1 inviting artists to submit their resumes and evidence of their past work/examples. Submissions totaled 149 from 32 states with the vast majority from California, New York and Washington state, Seymour said. "Two selection panels then soldiered through the submissions," she said.
A student advisory panel consisting of 13 UCA students representing a wide range of interests on campus reviewed the submissions and made recommendations to the student representative on the University's
Public Art Selection Panel, which also includes UCA faculty, staff and administration as well as art specialists from off campus. That panel then narrowed the submissions to 17 semifinalists and ultimately the top five.
Seymour said the Public Art Selection Panel would reconvene in early November and make a recommendation to UCA President Lu Hardin. Once he makes his decision, work could begin as early as Summer 2008, she said.
The UCA College of Fine Arts and Communication is celebrating its 10th anniversary during the University's Centennial. CFAC was founded in 1997; what is now UCA was founded in 1907 when the Arkansas Legislature approved a bill to establish the state's first teacher-training school. It was called Arkansas State Normal School, Arkansas State Teachers College and State College of Arkansas before becoming the University of Central Arkansas in 1975.
The institution has grown from 100 students to more than 12,000 and is Arkansas's second-largest, four-year comprehensive university.
For more information, call the Office of the Dean, College of Fine Arts and Communication, at (501) 450-3293 or e-mail gayles@uca.edu.
