>newground
Sculptor Neil Goodman and assistant in the studio
How often do an artist’s vision and the mission of a whole campus converge? Not often enough, to judge from plans for a new sculpture garden at the heart of the Gary campus.
Sculptor Neil Goodman, in collaboration with landscape architect Cynthia Owen-Bergland, is currently developing an ambitious sculpture garden in one of the most visible public spaces on the campus, the courtyard of the Savannah Center. Bounded by glass walls, the garden will display a series of Goodman’s monumental bronze sculptures and will extend to the grass knoll adjacent to the north end of Hawthorn Hall. When complete, the project will be one of the biggest public art projects in the region.
IUN Chancellor Bruce Bergland explains that “the garden fulfills some of the major goals of IUN’s long-range plan for the campus—enhancing cultural discovery, particularly with respect to the region, and improving the aesthetic identity of the campus.” Both the garden and its sculptures, for instance, will closely reflect the culture and ecology of northwest Indiana: an industrial landscape at the eastern edge of the prairie.
Shadows and Echoes
Goodman’s work as an artist is intimately linked to the northwest Indiana region, where he has lived and worked through most of his life. A professor of art at IUN since 1979, Goodman has established himself in the Chicago art community as both an artist and teacher, most recently with the installation of large-scale outdoor pieces throughout the United States. Among these are a series of sculptures in Chicago’s McCormick Place South Pavilion and one in the Dow Centennial Sculpture Garden in Midland, Michigan.
His work is, as he puts it, “an homage to the landscape. As an artist,” he says, “I have been greatly influenced by the industrial topography of northwest Indiana. As a frequent commuter from Gary to Chicago over the last 24 years, I have often marveled at the fantastic and uniquely sculptural shapes of many of the mills, bridges, barges, and cranes indigenous to the area. I have always lived close to this landscape, and my work is both a reflection of my environment as well as a visual link to it.”
His recent exhibit, “Shadows and Echoes,” on which the new works for the garden will be based, illustrates these ideas. “Each piece,” he explains, “is a multiple, made up of four repeated elements that are mathematically connected. They represent structures rather than nostalgic images.” The “shadows and echoes” of his title refers both to the repetition within the pieces and to the industrial shapes they echo.
Framing the Landscape
Each work frames the landscape with elegant, hand-carved metal lines outlining a three-dimensional space. The sculptures, for Goodman, act as “a lens: lines moving through space that charge the landscape like lightening, a great theater.” And these “lenses” are as much designed to call attention to the space around them—the environment, topography, and visual language of the region—as to themselves.
Which is why the garden is such an integral part of the whole project.
“The garden,” explains Owen-Bergland, “will represent the ecological heritage of northwest Indiana. Tall grasses six feet high in planters will reflect the region’s place on the eastern edge of the tall grass prairie. A fountain with boulders will offer a reference to the retreat of a glacier to Lake Michigan, which left boulders in its wake. This backdrop representing the native prairie will complement the industrial vision of the sculptures.”
Funding the Project
For IU Northwest the sculpture garden is a major priority among privately funded projects. Vice Chancellor Jeff Lorber explains, “We see the sculpture garden as a cultural showpiece for the region. It is the largest exhibit of its kind in this area and at the same time it is a meaningful reflection of who we are in terms of our history and our future.” The project will cost close to $500,000—roughly $220,000 for the garden and $250,000 for the sculptures, each of which will be funded individually. Construction of the garden is expected to begin this summer, and the installation of the sculptures will follow as they are funded.
“It is,” as Lorber says, “a very ambitious project for the campus and the region.” But the gains to be made—for IUN students and others—are greater. As Goodman suggests, “More than just courses, a school should offer students examples of the culture and art of their own time, not just appropriated, overly familiar images, but a challenging artistic language to encounter as they walk through campus.” The IU Northwest Sculpture Garden promises just that.
>Liz Rosdeitcher
For additional information about the IU Northwest Sculpture Garden, please contact:
IU Northwest
Division of University Advancement
3400 Broadway
Gary, IN 46408
(219) 980-6801
unadv@iun.edu
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