Construction of memorial site in recognition of Town’s 350th birthday and University’s 50th birthday underway
In celebration of the simultaneous birthdays of the Town of Dartmouth’s 350th and UMass Dartmouth’s 50th, a 350/50 sculpture and welcoming site for the community will be installed near the pond at the campus entrance.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place Homecoming Weekend: Friday, September 30 at 3pm at the Pond at the front of the UMassD campus. Parking will be available in Lot 1.
Event will take place rain or shine. Please wear appropriate clothing for the weather and bring your umbrella.
Designed by Professor Stacy Latt Savage, the sculpture symbolizes the connection between UMass Dartmouth and the Town of Dartmouth, and is a formal recognition of the Town’s history.
Savage, a Professor of Fine Arts at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, exhibits her sculpture nationally in a variety of venues, including museums, galleries, sculpture parks, and public commissions.
Public work of Savage’s can be found locally at the Holocaust Memorial in Buttonwood Park (New Bedford, MA) and a collaborative sculpture with her students at the Dartmouth Community Park (Dartmouth, MA).
Savage’s 350/50 sculpture salvages fragments from two now-defunct landmarks in the Town of Dartmouth – Lincoln Park Roller Coaster Comet, a twister-layout, roller coaster that operated from 1946 until 1987 in the former Lincoln Park along Route 6 in North Dartmouth; and the Round Hill Randome, a satellite-style dish that was built in the 1950s by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as part of a communications experiment and sited in South Dartmouth until 2007.
Additionally, steel with historical significance was obtained by Savage from local farmers and businesses, and she used these time-worn farm implements and curious objects (such as sickles, shovels, and marine equipment) within the sculpture.
For more information, contact Advancement Officer Lara Stone: lstone@umassd.edu or 508.999.8372.
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In addition to the sculpture, the welcome site will include a kiosk that emulates others installed throughout the Town of Dartmouth during its 350th birthday celebration in 2014. A uniquely designed cast-in-place concrete seating area emulates the original campus design of Paul Rudolph.
The two primary materials of the site, concrete and steel, symbolize the evolution of our campus within the town of Dartmouth. The 350/50 sculpture is essentially a steel nautilus, formed in divine proportion, and will be placed on a map silhouette within the pad of the Town of Dartmouth designating our campus.
“This development is part of UMass Dartmouth’s Master Planning Process and is also considered a marshland restoration project,” said Lara Stone, Advancement Officer at UMass Dartmouth. “As part of the restoration, invasive plant species will be replaced with elegant botanicals, including marsh marigolds, blue flag swamp iris, day lilies, and native sedge grasses.”
“The Town of Dartmouth has worked closely with the University for the last two years to bring this project to life,” said David Cressman, the Town’s Executive Administrator. The Town of Dartmouth commissioned Savage to design and build the sculpture and it is being gifted to UMass Dartmouth, who has prepared the site.
Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony
The 350/50 Sculpture installation will take place at the campus pond entrance during the ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday, September 30, 2016 at 3:00 pm. Open to the public. For more information contact Lara Stone at lstone@umassd.edu.