The Penn Stater Magazine

Some Photos of the Seward Johnson Sculptures

July 8, 2009

I had a chance yesterday to be on-site with my camera when one of the three Seward Johnson sculptures was set up for the arts festival. Here’s a photo of the one called God Bless America (based on Grant Wood’s American Gothic) getting unloaded from the fork lift:

Here’s a close-up of the sculpture—these things are done in cast-bronze, and the details are amazingly realistic (click on any of these to see larger):

And here’s a shot of some passers-by checking out one of the other sculptures, called Holding Out, on the plaza outside Willard Building:

You can see a slide show of 15 or so images of the arts festival sculptures here. There’s a third one, called My World, on the plaza outside the State College Municipal Building, but I haven’t had a chance to get shots of that yet.

By the way, when I was shooting photos of the sculptures, a woman who happened to pass by mentioned to me that Seward Johnson has set up a public sculpture park called “Grounds for Sculpture” in Hamilton, N.J., where you can see lots of public art like this—not just by Johnson himself but works by other artists as well.

Tina Hay, editor

Entry Filed under: Campus events, University Park campus. Tags: American Gothic, Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, Grant Wood, Grounds for Sculpture, public art, public sculpture, Seward Johnson, Willard Building.