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Robert Stackhouse MMA/ASU Project

Morris Museum of Art brings nationally acclaimed artist/sculptor to Augusta to create sculpture on Augusta State University campus

From Tuesday afternoon, April 20, 1999, through Monday, April 26, artist/sculptor Robert Stackhouse, Augusta State University students, and others worked directly with the artist to create a major wooden sculptural installation which will remain on the ASU campus for an extended period.

Robert Stackhouse is noted for his monumentally scaled watercolor paintings, drawings, and prints as well as his sculpture. He has completed temporary sculptural installations across the country and in Canada in locations including New York, Honolulu, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Long Island City, Sao Paulo, Los Angeles, Toledo, Knoxville, Chicago, Brooklyn, Portland, Indianapolis, Eau Claire, Bloomfield Hills, Yonkers, Minneapolis, Baltimore, Quebec City, Toronto, and now, Augusta. Stackhouse has also installed permanent sculptures in California, Missouri, Minnesota, and Australia. By the early 1980s, when Stackhouse had installed major A-frame constructions in many outdoor and museum environments and his diverse serpent and ship forms had become increasingly well known, he was regarded as one of the country's most prominent sculptors.

The project—coordinated by J. Richard Gruber, curator of the Morris exhibition, with ASU's Fine Arts Department professor Brian Rust—was developed in relation to the artist's exhibition opening at the Morris Museum of Art on Thursday, May 20, to give the community a unique opportunity to see and to work with a nationally acclaimed artist. The sculpture will be located adjacent to the USS Augusta flagpole located on campus, evoking a reference to ships and Augusta's ties to the sea.

Robert Stackhouse is "down to earth." That's how a staff member described him to me after she met him. This is also true of his sculpture taking place in the center of our campus. It's art fully in the American grain: common materials, ingenious form, a clear sense of engineering to it, expressing both the mind and the hands, and yet whimsical in a kind of Midwestern way.

But it's also inclusive and participatory. Bob Stackhouse may be the artist, but he's eager to have everybody on campus help him. He makes his work feel like our work. Suddenly we're all artists—students, faculty, and staff. It's a wonderful opportunity for everyone at the university. It's opening our eyes, lifting our spirits, and putting our hands to work. If I were going to put a sign in front of the campus, it wouldn't say "Artist at Work." It would say "Art at Work."

— William Bloodworth, President, Augusta State University

Follow the progress of the project below:
Tuesday, April 20, 1999
Wednesday, April 21, 1999
Thursday, April 22, 1999
Friday, April 23, 1999
Saturday, April 24, 1999
Sunday, April 25, 1999
Monday, April 26, 1999
Later photos, as of May 6, 1999
Dedication ceremony, May 20, 1999
A Augusta's last day and deconstruction

The Historical Roots of the Sculpture Installation Site
Robert Stackhouse arrived in Augusta on April 19 to select a site for a sculpture installation on the Augusta State University campus, which he would begin the following day. After meeting with university president William Bloodworth, Jr. Ph.D., Stackhouse and university officials toured the grounds to finalize the site selection.

With blueprint in hand, Stackhouse and his guides walked the campus looking for an appropriate site. In the end, they selected a site with a remarkable legacy of its own. As Stackhouse later explained, the site revealed itself to be the sculpture's natural destination. The flagpole at the center of the campus had caught the artist's attention. Initial discussions with Bloodworth, Morris Museum deputy director J. Richard Gruber, ASU art professor Brian Rust, among others, suggested that the flagpole had been part of the USS Augusta. While the exact heritage of the flagpole is under research, it is a significant representation of the sea and its heritage—subject matter that is often reflected in Stackhouse's work. This often-overlooked flagpole gave the sculpture a meaningful direction and lent the site an unforeseen relevance.

But these grounds have other stories to tell as well. Nearby stands a beautiful white oak tree, about 400 years old—so classic and picturesque that it serves as the logo for Augusta State University. Named the Arsenal Oak, the tree is 15.4 feet in circumference and is 87 feet tall currently. The great Indian trading path from coastal Virginia through the Carolinas passed by here. It was the main trading road from Augusta to the Indians in Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee.

The campus, rich in reminders from bygone eras, was once the estate of Freeman Walker (1780–1827), a Georgia State Senator. In 1826 the United States Government purchased 72 acres of Senator Walker's Bellvue estate and constructed an arsenal. During the Civil War the Confederate government manufactured arms here. Colonel J. Walker Benet was named Arsenal Commander in 1911. His famous son—poet and writer Stephen Vincent Benet—is said to have written under the oak's branches as a young boy. The arsenal was active until after World War II but closed in 1955.

In 1925 the Junior College of Augusta was established at Richmond Academy and was the first public junior college in the state of Georgia. In 1957 the Junior College of Augusta moved to the current ASU site and is now named Augusta State University. Therein lies just one of the inspirations for the sculpture's title, A Augusta. The title, in addition to referring to the A-frame forms, also alludes to academic achievement at Augusta State University and high marks for work well done by students and the Augusta community.

Now A Augusta adds another legendary story to the history of Augusta and Augusta State University and ties the significance of it all—the flagpole, the Arsenal Oak, and the sculpture—closer together. Looking back at this project years from now, one will learn about a sculpture once built by the hands of a famous artist—along with the hands of the community—that embodied the spirit of the South, the myths of the sea, the collaboration of a community, and created a piece of history in the process.