Library artwork commissioned through university contest

From the Winterset Madisonian 11/15

The Friends of the Winterset Library is expending about $16,000 to commission a piece of artwork
for the outside of the library through a contest. According to Winterset Librarian Nancy Trask, the Friends of the Library decided to support a piece of art work for the outside of the library at a committee meeting and to open the competition to universities so the project could be used as a creative teaching tool. 
"We had this committee meeting and Kevin Lair, a local artist and university professor, had the idea
to commission the artwork through a university competition and then boom, boom,boom! People
were interested in it happened very quickly," Trask said.

The library invited three universities to participate in the competition, including Iowa State University,
Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., and  Dalhousie University in Montreal, Canada. "Lair suggested we go to these three because he was acquainted with some of the professionals there and thought they would be agreeable to project and they were all jumped at the chance," Trask said.

Ball State University , sent a professor of Architecture and seven graduate students to look at the
library about two weeks ago to take photos and aid in their design. Iowa State University was thrilled with the project as well. The College of Design is planning for its part in the competition. A group of faculty will integrate the design of the artwork into courses and student activities during the spring semester. Nine
faculty members will be participating. People from multiple departments will be active in the project. "
According to Trask, anticipates making several visits to Winterset with their students and faculty.
The Dean's office is even providing money to help their students participate in the contest.

Universities are in charge of getting their artwork together as a model and each university has the
opportunity to submit up to two models. Students will be working on the models during the spring semester and should be finished by April or May. At that point, the models will come to Winterset where
a panel of three judges will make a juried decision on the winner. On the judging panel are local artist
Robin Paul of Mad Haus Gallery, Des Moines artist Jordan Weber and Philip Chen from Drake ,
University. The local community will also have the  opportunity to provide input on which model should
be chosen, according to Trask.
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​-Charlotte Underwood