MUSCATINE, Iowa–At Muscatine Community College, art and agriculture come together with a new statue unveiled at the beginning of November. The statue honors the fusion between different STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) subjects as well as the talents of both students and regional artists.

According to Muscatine Community College president Naomi De Winter, plans for the statue date back all the way to 2019, when some agriculture students came up with the idea of adding a statue to campus. They began the process of working with artist John VandeWalle to make it a reality. Together, they brainstormed to come up with a concept for the statue that incorporated both their ideas for what it should look like and materials they could easily source and work with to create it.

After VandeWalle arrived at the final design, some of the college’s welding students and faculty members worked alongside him to assemble the statue. All of the work on the piece took place on campus in the Muscatine Community College welding lab. This opportunity not only gave students the opportunity to hone their welding skills, but to really participate in both the artistic and engineering processes and to see the parallels between the two disciplines.

A grant from the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs specifically for adding public art to the college’s campus made the project financially possible.

The new sculpture now sits on Muscatine Community College’s quad, close to the Loper Library and Gaekle Hall, which houses the college’s agriculture department. The final piece, which consists of several small components, makes up an abstract landscape with a tractor in the foreground. It represents the long history of agriculture in Iowa.

Currently, the sculpture does not have a name. However, DeWinter says the college plans to find a name for it by collecting suggestions from students and staff and choosing one from those recommendations.

With the sculpture now finished and on display for all to see, DeWinter feels excited about its presence and hopes it encourages the college to engage in more public art projects in the future. She also wants to keep finding opportunities for students to collaborate with others in the community and to engage in interdisciplinary projects.

“I am thrilled we have this piece and hope that it is one of many,” stated DeWinter. “Everything about it is unique – the idea (student-led), the materials (mixing old and new), the process (student-driven, artist-led), the creation (participatory with the artist, faculty and students).”