Sculpture winds through WCU trails
A nature-based sculpture project launched by Western Carolina University’s Fine Art Museum aims to feature outdoors art while promoting discussion of sustainability and aesthetics on campus.
Funded by the WCU Sustainable Energy Initiative with support from various other departments, the project brought a team of artists with Camp Little Hope to create an art experience inspired by the Great Smoky Mountains on the university’s multi-use trail. The artists arrived April 8 and will be on campus through May 21.
The project was made possible by a $5-per-semester fee students began paying in fall 2014. The student-comprised Sustainability Energy Initiative Committee began taking proposals last year for environmentally friendly ideas from WCU students, faculty and staff, to put the fee toward. This is the second project to be funded with the fee, the first being a solar-powered hammock study lounge.
“We were thrilled to receive the proposal for the nature-based sculpture,” said Zack Waldroup, a member of the committee and a WCU senior majoring in environmental science. “This project was unique in that it wasn’t what most people would think of as a sustainability project.”
However, the use of natural materials as well as the project’s location on the campus trail system, which adds to the aesthetic appeal, meet requirements perfectly, while promoting environmental consciousness and heritage, he said.
Titled LUNG, the outdoor sculpture will represent the intimate relationship between the lungs of park visitors and the lungs of the earth. Winding contraptions representative of pipelines, nurse logs, ear horns and old gramophone speakers will twist along the paths, created using reclaimed wood.
