Well-known sculpture donated to school will endure restoration this summer season
The Iron Horse, a preferred vacation spot for vacationers and College of Georgia college students, will endure restoration this summer season. The sculpture will likely be briefly faraway from its present location alongside Freeway 15 through the restoration course of, and it will likely be reinstalled in late summer season.
Patty Curtis and her daughter, Alice Hugel, generously gifted the sculpture and the land on which it sits to the college this 12 months. Amy Abbe, a neighborhood conservator, will assess the 12-foot, 2-ton sculpture, restore any imperfections, and reinforce the metal construction.
“Visiting the Iron Horse has develop into an awesome scholar custom on the College of Georgia, and we’re excited that this restoration challenge will enable college students to get pleasure from this sculpture for a few years to come back,” stated Dean of College students Eric Atkinson.
The solar rises behind the Iron Horse on the Plant Sciences Farm on a cloudy morning. (Photograph by Peter Frey/UGA)
The Iron Horse was initially sculpted in 1954 by Abbott Pattison, a visiting artist-in-residence from Chicago who was working at UGA as a part of a Rockefeller grant. He constructed the horse by welding collectively items of boilerplate metal.
Whereas the sculpture is now a beloved native attraction, it was initially met with derision from college students when it was put in on campus. The college allowed L.C. Curtis of UGA’s Horticulture Division to maneuver the statue to his farm in Greene County, about 25 miles south of Athens. The Curtis household later offered their property to the college, and it’s now dwelling to the Iron Horse Plant Sciences Farm.
Present plans are for the sculpture to be eliminated shortly after the spring Graduation ceremonies. It will likely be returned to the identical web site in late summer season.
