Activating the Campus: Public Art at CMC

Sculptures by world-renowned artists Chris Burden and Ellsworth Kelly have become the latest additions to a series of art and creativity endeavors at Claremont McKenna College. The College received the gift sculptures from CMC Trustee George Roberts ’66 P’93 as part of a major art and creativity initiative currently underway at Claremont McKenna. The initiative involves the Claremont McKenna Public Art Committee; the Student Arts Council, which presents student artist showcases; the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies, which brings artists, curators, and art historians to campus; the Mellon Roundtables on Creativity, Empathy, and Courage; and the new Sontag Center for Collaborative Creativity.

The Burden and Kelly sculptures build on the installation of painter Mary Weatherford’s monumental mural, From the Mountain to the Sea, in the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum last year. Burden’s work, Meet in the Middle, will be installed in May 2016 in front of the new Roberts Pavilion, a spectacular new fitness and events center for CMC and the athletic center for the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps intercollegiate, intramural, and physical education programs. The untitled Kelly piece, a unique totem sculpture, will be placed at the site of the original Story House on the campus in 2017.