AUSTIN (KXAN) — If you’ve spent time on the University of Texas at Austin campus, you’ve most likely taken a look at the school’s public art program—which includes many pieces borrowed from the famed Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
UT’s public art program, called Landmarks, started in 2008 with 28 borrowed works from the Met. Since then, it has grown to 46 installations across campus and at the Dell Medical School.
The collection includes commissions from admired or promising artists. Kathleen Stimpert, the program’s deputy director, said each piece is picked to fit the space, such as art that mimics binary code at the computer sciences building or a feminine sculpture outside the former women’s gym. Many of the selected artists are well-known in the art world, Stimpert said.
The university is celebrating the program’s 15 years. On a typical day, the art gets over 160,000 views plus 75,000 visits to the program’s “crown jewel,” the Turrell Skyspace—a colorful installation to view sunrises and sunsets—per year.
One of the most prominent works is Monochrome for Austin. It looks like a jumble of canoes and small boats at the corner of Speedway at 24th Street.
“Students just lovingly call it ‘the canoes,'” Stimpert said. “It’d be like meet me at the canoes.”
The budget for any renovation or construction project on campus includes 1-2% dedicated to public arts. More art additions are in the works, Stimpert said, with a mural planned in the Seay Building that houses the psychology department.
“It’s an incredible indication of UT’s commitment to having a campus that really produces well-rounded students,” she said.
Visitors can take guided tours of the collection on the first Sunday of each month at 11 a.m. An app tour is also available with QR codes on each piece’s signage.
Here’s a look at some of the on-campus art:
Monochrome for Austin
The work by Nancy Rubins stands about 50 feet tall and is made of 70 canoes and small boats. It is outside the Norman Hackerman building. It was commissioned in 2015 and combines the elements of art and engineering, Stimpert said.
Monochrome for Austin (KXAN Photo/Taylor Girtman)
Sentinel IV
The sculpture by Simone Leigh sits outside the Anna Hiss Gymnasium, a former female-only gym. It was made in 2020 and is inspired by a Zulu ceremonial spoon that “conveys status among the Zulu people and symbolizes women’s labor,” the sculpture’s online description said.
Sentinel IV (KXAN Photo/Taylor Girtman)
EON
The digital art display is a panoramic piece that is inspired by symbiosis and plays on an animated loop near a studying area. It was made by Jennifer Steinkamp in 2020. The display is inside the College of Natural Sciences.
EON (KXAN Photo/Taylor Girtman)
Circle with Towers
The sculpture is the only piece in the Landmarks collection that can be sat on or touched. You might find students on it lounging outside The Bill and Melinda Gates Science Complex and Dell Computer Science Hall.
Circle with Towers (KXAN Photo/Taylor Girtman)
The sculpture is made of cubes meant to mimic binary code and matches other cube shapes around the building. It was made in 2011 by Sol LeWitt.
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