Edwards College is getting a Sculpture Yard
With construction of a Sculpture Yard in the Thomas W. and Robin W. Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts, Coastal Carolina University is bringing sculpture back home.
“With this addition, we are elevating the entire program,” says Arne Flaten, chair of the Department of Visual Arts. “This will be a game changer.”
The Sculpture Yard is located on the backside of Edwards in a concrete area that has never been used much. An open-air building with cagelike bars will house the equipment that will be covered by a roof. The roof probably won’t be constructed until next spring.
Flaten and the art faculty are especially excited because having the sculpture yard will allow the casting and firing of large bronze pieces like the seven-foot Chauncey statue that will be installed at the entrance of the baseball/softball complex next February.
By mid-October, the electrical, gas and plumbing should be completed, and equipment should be installed by the end of month, says Flaten.
“The first thing we hook up will be kilns. They’re taking up space now in the old kiln room, which we need for storage for the gallery,” he says. The bronze furnace will also be installed.
Also, Professor Elizabeth Keller’s ceramic students can’t fire up their pieces until the kilns are up and running.
With the kilns running, Logan Woodle, assistant professor of art, will start casting pieces of the Chauncey sculpture with the help of students in his sculpting class.
“They’ll be involved in every step of the process, from pouring the sand, molding, casting, pouring wax,” says Woodle, who created the small and large sculptures.
A17-inch maquette (small preliminary model) oil clay Chauncey in a boxer’s pose with a fierce look and raised fists has already morphed into a seven-foot tall Chauncey that’s on his way to bronze casting. He will be cast in 20 to 24 pieces and then put back together. The right leg back, right leg front, left leg back and front, and so on; then he’ll be welded back together, the seams will be sanded down to a smooth finish, and a protective lacquer will turn the bronze figure a nice brown shade.
