The newest sculpture on the University of Minnesota Duluth campus comes from downtown St. Paul and was donated to the Tweed Museum. Sky, by Georgette Sosin, is an angular sculpture made in 1981, of welded aluminum.
Sky now sits outside of the Kathryn A. Martin library on a thick concrete base, which was installed in October.
Library Director Matt Rosendahl, and Registrar for the Tweed Museum of Art, Camille Doran, provided context for the newly installed sculpture.
Camille Doran says, “It (Sky) was donated to the Tweed Museum in 2019 from the Estate of Georgette Sosin through the artist's son Philip Sosin, who is the Trustee. The sculpture needed conservation and KCI Conservators, Inc. were hired to assess and treat the sculpture, and oversee its removal from the Cities and installation at UMD.”
Philip Sosin created a Go Fund Me page in April of 2019, with a goal of $30,000, which would be used to restore his mother’s work and donate it to the Tweed Museum. Sky had become damaged by the elements, vandalism, and pollution, after 34 years in St. Paul.
The artist’s son hoped to preserve not just the sculpture, but his mother’s message and legacy as well, according to the Go Fund Me page. The message Philip Sosin associates with Sky states, “And grant our prayers for lasting peace, for every nation everywhere.”
After raising a small portion of the goal on Go Fund Me, Sky was able to be assessed, treated, and brought north.
Matt Rosendahl explains, “I was approached last year by the School of Fine Arts. They noted that Tweed had acquired this sculpture, and could provide donor funds for its installation and maintenance. On behalf of the library, I expressed interest in the sculpture - additional art in and around the library is always appreciated!”
There are sculptures dotted all around the UMD campus, perhaps the most notable being 89-foot-tall Wild Ricing Moon by John David Mooney. “Many of the sculptures on campus are from the Percent for Art program, stemming from 1984 Minnesota legislation that allows state building projects of $500,000 or more to use up to 1% of the total construction budget to purchase or commission original art for the site,” says Camille Doran.
For more information on sculptures that are a part of the Tweed collection, students should contact the Tweed at [email protected]. Besides Sky, there are no new outdoor sculptures scheduled for the campus at this time.