College museum kicks off outdoor sculpture series

Meadows Museum (Photo by Andreas Praefcke – Own work (own photograph), CC BY 3.0)

SHREVEPORT, La. — A college art museum in Louisiana is kicking off a new series of outdoor shows featuring contemporary sculptors.

The inaugural show is by found art sculptor George Tobolowsky of Dallas, and Centenary College plans a public reception for him Thursday (Nov. 9) to open the series.

Four of Tobolowsky’s pieces are near the Meadows Museum of Art, which is sponsoring the series, called “Meadows Outdoors”.

Four other sculptures are in other parts of the Shreveport campus.

The works will be on display through late spring.

“Meadows Outdoors creates an environment that focuses on a well-rounded liberal arts experience,” Sean FitzGibbons, director of the Meadows Museum, said in a news release. “Students who may not actively seek visual art will encounter sculpture throughout their daily routines.”

The museum will invite a different artist or art collective each year. Those artists or collective representatives will also participate in college courses.

Tobolowsky spoke in August to a class about public art, and a sculpture class helped choose the sites for his work and to install it.

Tobolowsky spoke both about what it takes to be a professional artist and the business side of art.

Those are both topics he knows well. He earned business and law degrees at Southern Methodist University and spent decades in those fields.

His minor was in sculpture, but he only began making art about 10 years ago, according to the biography on his website, which says he welds huge industrial scraps together like puzzle pieces, seeking to create a balanced whole.