Horticulture center hosts Sculptures in the Garden

Illinois State University’s Horticulture Center will hold its Sculptures in the Garden, An Evening Affair event on Thursday, Sept. 9 from 5 to 7:30 p.m.  Visitors will have the opportunity to view the Horticulture Center’s newest sculpture installations and meet the sculptors who created them.  The event is free and open to the public.

The Horticulture Center is located off Raab Road in Normal, near Lincoln College.  For more information contact Jessica Chambers at 438-3496 or visit the website.

Featured sculptures at the Center are the work of an Illinois State student and two Illinois State alumni. The theme, “Sculptures in the Garden,” came from Grant Walsh, an undergraduate student double majoring in photography and graphic design.  Walsh has constructed sculptures out of recycled materials and connected their meaning to pertinent environmental issues.

Mac Condill, an Illinois State agriculture alumnus, and his family own the Great Pumpkin Patch in Arthur.  Condill grows more than 400 different varieties of cucurbits (pumpkins, gourds and squash).  The cucurbits are also the focus for Mac’s Homestead Bakery and Homestead Seeds.

Jeff Garland, an Illinois State fine arts alumnus, is an associate professor of art at Illinois College.  He began painting the prairie 25 years ago and watching the grass move with the wind and the variety of textures it created, started him on a path to recreate this sensation in his work.  Through various mediums, his work became kinetic and interacted with its surroundings.  His outdoor works celebrate nature with their kinetic elements that move like the grass and animals over a rolling prairie.

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