You can find art almost anywhere you go in Texas, including college and university campuses.
Sam Houston State University in Huntsville is no exception. Pops of vivid colors blend in with the campus's green nature and brick buildings.
"We have a lot of beautiful art for people to look at," Henderson said. "Forms and colors and shapes and things to make them think about art while they’re walking around, sort of like an outdoor museum," Michael Henderson, chair of the SHSU Department of Art, said.
Some of the art surrounds the Dana G. Hoyt Fine Arts Building, which includes the Ruth Felder and Robert Bush Smither Gallery.
The building may be the arts quadrant, but you can also find huge sculptures and other installations across the SHSU campus.
In front of the building, there is a beautiful multicolored glass sculpture called Synchronicity of Color, created by Margo Sawyer. According to CODAworx, the sculpture serves as a reminder of both Kente cloth and DNA structures and the colors reflect the window to the multicultural world at SHSU.
All in all, the result of the sculpture is a "joyous, inspirational reverie experience of space."
In the courtyard of the Lowman Student Center, there is an intricate mosaic filled with works about SHSU, created by artist Dan Phillips. The medallions form a figure eight outside the level one atrium and celebrate the different departments across SHSU.
"The whole profile of this pergola is in the shape of an analemma," Phillips said. "Which is the pattern that the sun makes in a year's time."
According to KHOU 11, the art gives passersby - students, parents and teachers - a reason to wonder.
The Gaertner Performing Arts Center is not only an excellent performing arts facility, it is also an art gallery - both inside and out - for the visual arts. The walls and open spaces of the GPAC showcase the unique works of internationally-known artists and sculptors. View and download the walking guide and visit the works in person.
Eight major works constitute the heart of the original collection. The most prominent piece is a 16-foot wood and steel sculpture, Around the Flower Wall by internationally-known sculptor James Surls.
Work by photographer Joe Aker, glass artists Kathleen Ash and Jason Lawson, kinetic sculptor Tim Prentice and sculptor Hoss Haley are all represented within the GPAC facility. Another major sculpture, Diamond Waves Column, was created by Texas artist Jesus Moroles.
Next to Bowers Stadium on Bearkat Boulevard, there is a 5,000-pound stainless steel sculpture named Rainbow Walker, created by Minnesota artist Ali Baudoin. Polished and brushed metal are used to reflect the sky, trees and earth all in dynamic balance and tension.
Gracing the front yard of the oldest educational building in Texas (Austin Hall) is a life-size bronze statue, the Sam Houston Centennial Statue. This was created by Houston artist Trace Guthrie.
A prototype for the 67-foot tall statue of Texas hero Sam Houston is in front of the Newton Gresham Library. The original statue, A Tribute to Courage, was sculpted by David Adickes and is located on Interstate 45 at the southern entrance to Huntsville.
It is a great reminder that the artistic scene at SHSU has much more to offer than just the iconic Sam Houston statue that we are familiar with. In fact, the huge statue is a landmark that you are on your way to Huntsville, especially Sam Houston State University.
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