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If you've visited the Horowitz Center recently, you've probably noticed intriguing works of
art at the North and South entrances. Grace Anastasiadis has more on the story.
Two sculptures, The Cycle by Hannah Jubran and Autumn Amber by Glenn Zweygardt, have
been brought to campus through a Howard County Arts Council program called ARTsites. Coleen
West, Executive Director of the Arts Council, is passionate about the program, now in its
second year. Public art enhances and enlivens community
uh community spaces and so a public art program like ARTSites o-offers the public an opportunity
to see art where they might not see yet. As part of the annual ARTsites initiative,
12 sites around Howard County are selected to receive a sculptural piece. Artists from
across the country are invited to submit works for selection.
The sites that are invited to participate uh get to pick their own artist. So they ha-
are invested in the process, they get very excited about the work that they-they- they're
selecting.
Response from the community has been encouraging to West and her team.
One of the stories uh that I've heard from a group of cyclist is you know, they cycle
around Columbia and they have been trying to get to each of the sculptures as a cycling
group.
HCC's ARTsites piece for 2012-2013 was The Cycle, located on the campus quad at the North
entrance to the Horowitz Center. The featured piece for 2013-2014 is Autumn Amber, located
in the Moxley Garden at the South Entrance to the Horowitz Center.
Glenn Swygardt was one of the artists who came to us through our promotional efforts.
His work was uh absolutely amazing, the stone work that he does is just so exquisite, his
craftsmanship is just e-excellent. Zweygardt was attracted to ARTsites for a
many reasons. I think I heard first through word of mouth
that uh I needed to look into the Howard County Arts Council because they were offering an
excellent fee for the rental or the exposure of your sculpture. And the other interesting
detail is that I attended graduate school at Maryland Institute, and I did a graduate
seminar on cities and urban development and ran across Columbia which was being developed
at the time. And it is laid out, it was planned to be an ideal community... and it's so fun
for me to come back and now be participating in the ideal community....
As a long-time faculty member of New York State College, Zweygardt values higher education
and is delighted to have Autumn Amber placed on a college campus.
I just think it really fits beautifully in this setting, and uh I think the two of-of
them are talking very much to each other. And that's really what I like about outdoor
sculpture... is that it can enliven its environment, it can be this kind of focal point.
West hopes the program continues in the future. The ARTSites program is a great first step
because it allows the Arts Council and its partners to experiment and test the idea of
public art. So this gives us an idea of what the community likes and enjoys and what they
would like to see more of without the financial risk involved um in a- a more formal program,
but we're going to take what we've learned from this process, continue to build on it,
and build towards a formal uh public art program and um so that we can continue to you know,
delight and engage the community for years to come.
HCC has purchased The Cycle, and the college is still accepting contributions towards the
piece. If you would like to play a role in supporting public art on campus, please contact
the HCC Educational Foundation at www.howardcc.edu/donors.
For information about the Arts Council's ARTsites program and sculpture locations, visit www.hocoarts.org.
Autumn Amber can be viewed at HCC through April 2014.