PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — The University of Maine at Presque Isle is a college that wants to be inclusive of all cultures, Andreas von Huene said on Wednesday.
So when the Arrowsic-based artist was called upon to create a sculpture for the campus as part of the final step in a major renovation project on campus, von Huene decided that he wanted his creation to reflect that.
That is the concept behind “To the Other Side,” von Huene’s stone sculpture that will be unveiled today as part of the college’s Homecoming 2010 festivities. The sculpture has been installed as part of the state’s Percent for Art Program.
The installation of the sculpture symbolizes the final step in the $2 million renovation of Folsom Hall, the university’s major classroom building. The renovation was finished in 2008, but as part of the project, UMPI established a committee to ensure that a new work of art would be installed in or near the building, in keeping with the guidelines of the Maine Percent for Art law.
Enacted in 1979, the Maine Percent for Art law reserves 1 percent of the construction funds for all state-funded building projects for the acquisition of new works of art to be displayed in the public areas of these buildings. The program was intended to enhance culture and the arts and to encourage the development of artists.
The Maine Arts Commission oversees all Percent for Art projects.
UMPI’s Percent for Art Committee included Anderson Giles, UMPI art professor serving as the Maine Arts Commission representative; Mark Carter, the Folsom Hall project architect; and Sandra Huck, UMPI’s Reed Gallery director, as the university’s representative.
The committee determined all the potential locations where the art could be installed, set a deadline for receiving submissions and settled on the possible subject matter that could be reflected in the art. Because Folsom Hall is primarily a classroom building with 90 percent of the university population moving through or around the building, and because there are diverse spaces in the building, including multi-use classrooms, computer labs and a student lounge, the committee identified themes of movement, community, diverse populations and the rural northern Maine setting.
In November 2009, the committee reviewed all submissions and was impressed with von Huene’s work.
“The images that he presented of past sculptures were works we could envision living on UMPI’s campus,” Huck said. “From the wide range of submissions, his work most especially seemed as if it belonged on our campus because there is a sense of community within his work. A viewer will not see everything in this work with just one look.”
Von Huene said on Wednesday that he felt that UMPI would be a great place for a sculpture.
“One of the great things about UMPI is that it isn’t overcrowded,” he noted. “It has nice, sloping green land and there are already a number of outdoor art pieces on campus that fit great with the landscape.”
Von Huene met with the committee in February and his sculpture was installed on campus in August. The sculpture is made out of “Freshwater Pearl” granite from the Frankfort quarry. It measures 73 inches high by 43 inches wide. Its thickness is 5 inches at the bottom, tapering to three-quarters of an inch thick at the top.
He said that his sculpture “is about the discreet cultures that come together and can access each other at the University of Maine at Presque Isle.” The piece, he said, works to illustrate that through its crisp arcs, spherical surfaces, overall outline and more.
“I drew inspiration from this university’s desire to attract a diverse student body and its practice of reaching out both locally and internationally,” von Huene said. “‘To the Other Side’ was designed to recognize and respect diverse cultures and modes of thinking by showing each is viable, that they are not far apart — connected even — and are of the duality we find in human life. We also must respect nature. Good fortune saw to it that I put holes in my sculpture that allow this glorious long visual stretch of east-west lawn some passage. It has been a real pleasure working with and being of service to such a university community.”
The artist and sculptor has completed nearly 30 public art pieces that have been commissioned over the last 20 years. He is the recipient of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Ichabod Washburn Award and a Maine Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship. He has created sculptures for other universities in the state, in-cluding the University College of Bangor, Eastern Maine Community College, Southern Maine Community College and the University of Maine.
The public is invited to attend the unveiling of “To the Other Side,” which will take place just after 3 p.m.