The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art has a virtual walking tour of more than a dozen sculptures found throughout the Utah State University Logan campus. The tour illuminates the meaning behind various statues seen regularly by students and the local community.
The tour is open to anyone and it can happen at anytime through an online map or phone app including audio from a narrator who explains more about the artist and their work.
“Snafu," from the USU Sculpture Walk Tour. "It is the most popular sculpture on campus, mainly due to it’s nickname among USU students 'The Yellow French Fries'. In fact, students usually make a snow sculpture of a giant hamburger next to the fries each winter.”
Zaira Arredondo is digital content manager for NEHMA and says the project first launched in 2011, but the audio and graphic elements are more recent.
“We just wanted to redesign the brochure,"Arredondo said. "Redesign the map. We had new photography of the sculptures and we also wanted to have an audio component. There you can listen to old details about each of the pieces and the story about the artwork and the artists. And it’s a fun activity to do over the summer.”
Arredondo enjoys the sculpture Passacaglia found in the Caine Performance Hall because of its three-dimensional reflection of the nearby Bear River mountain range of Logan Canyon. While, Adrienne Dehann the administrative and events coordinator for NEHMA, favors a different piece.
“I really, I think I like SNAFU,” Dehann said. “which is located near the Merrill-Cazier Library. I think what I like most about it is that over the years it’s been such a controversial piece. Even though to look at it, it doesn’t evoke controversy ... It also at one point painted green, under some sort of, I’m not sure if it was a university prank or why it was painted green. Just as you go back through the records, I like seeing how it was perceived by different audiences. I do like the fact that it looks like french fries.”
