In the spring of 2024, the Brown Arts Institute introduced a new initiative. Every Saturday and…read moreSunday from April 6 through November 17 at 1:00 PM, there will be free Public Art Tours led by students. These tours will provide weekend enrichment through the exploration of Brown University's distinctive outdoor public art collection. With guidance from University Curator Nicole Wholean, students curated tours that feature a personal selection of 6 works from Brown's wide-ranging public art collection of over 30 pieces. The tour could range from 35-45 minutes.
Saturday tours meet at the Eli Harvey sculpture, Bronze Bruno on the College Green. Sunday Tours meet at Tom Friedman's Circle Dance on the Campus Walk. No advance registration required, just arrive at the location before 1:00 PM. There are no public art tours on April 20 and 21, May 25 and 26, August 31, and September 1.
On Sunday, August 11th, I was at Tom Friedman's Circle Dance on the Campus Walk about 12:45pm and stayed till 1:05pm, but no one showed up. The next day, I emailed artsinstitute@brown.edu and Nicole acknowledged there was a scheduling error and no one was scheduled to give a tour on Sunday. She apologized and confirmed a student will be giving a tour this Sunday, August 18th, so if I like I could try again.
On Sunday, August 18th, I was at Tom Friedman's Circle Dance on the Campus Walk about 1:00pm and met Hayley, our guide. It was just a small group of 3. We started with Tom Friedman's Circle Dance which is a joyful, energetic sculpture inspired by Henri Matisse's La Danse (1910). The figures are first made a maquette out of aluminum roasting pans. Looking at this sculpture, you can feel the happiness from the figures.
We then walked across the street to Maya Lin's Under the Laurentide installed at the east entrance of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society (IBES) at 85 Waterman. This piece serves as a reminder of climate change and the urgency of the research taking place at the IBES.
After, we walked to Simmons Quad to see the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius that stands at the rear of Sayles Hall. The statue is a copy of one now housed in the Capitoline Museum at Rome and one of only two replicas in the world.
Next, we stopped at Giuseppe Penone's 2006 cast bronze sculpture entitled Idee de Pietra (Ideas of Stone). It is installed amongst the elms that create a perimeter around the Main Green and I never noticed it before even though I've walked by the Main Green plenty of times. Idee de Pietra is modeled after a nut tree, possesses a striking likeness in color, texture, and stature to the real thing. It stands 27 feet in height with a 5000 pound granite river stone is nestled amongst the branches. Balance is central to Idee de Pietra, presenting an invitation to consider the stone, perched amid the branches of the tree, as an intermediary between the forces of gravity and light. This was probably my favorite piece on the tour. My interpretation is the stone is a student and the branches around it are supporting the student either directly or indirectly.
Following was an iron and stone sculpture installed in 2014 on the Quiet Green. This was designed by Martin Puryear and created as "a living site of memory, inviting reflection and fresh discovery without provoking paralysis or shame" symbolizing a move toward infinite freedom even as the weight of history remains half-buried. The sculpture serves as a crucial everyday reminder of Brown's historical ties to the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the work of Africans and African-Americans, enslaved and free, who helped build Brown University, Rhode Island, and the nation.
Second to last stop was Henry Moore's Reclining Figure No. 2 -- Bridge Prop (also known as Three Piece Reclining Figure) installed on the Main Green. This is an exploration of the body through the interconnectedness of its various bifurcated pieces. The work was inspired by Waterloo Bridge, London.
Last stop was the seven-foot Bronze Bruno statue sculpted by New York City animalier Eli Harvey and casted by the Gorham Manufacturing Company in 1923. This statue was paid for by $10,000 of donations from Brown alumni. Strength, courage, and endurance are inscribed on the front plaque of the bear and represents Brown University students. On the back of the bear, there is a piece of "Slate Rock" on which Roger Williams supposedly landed in 1636.
I really enjoyed the free Public Art Tours led by Hayley. As she is a recent graduate of Brown University, she added antidotes about her time at Brown and the pieces she showed us were really thought provoking. Our tour finished at 1:35pm. Hayley mentioned that each tour guide curates their own tour and have their own stories about the art so it'll be a different experience each time.