Carts and Cocktails celebrates 35 years of art

As any GSU student who has gazed upon the forlorn face of Paul Bunyan, the wooden Art Ark located inside the campus' main entrance, or the "French fries" (properly titled Illinois Landscape No. 5) located outside of the F building knows, the campus of Governors State University is home to one of the most unique art collections in the Chicagoland area. Since 1978, Governors State
University has been home to the Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park. The park currently contains 29 works of art, spread throughout both the interior and exterior of GSU's campus.

2013 marks the 35th anniversary of the Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park. GSU recently celebrated the park's 35 years at the third annual Carts and Cocktails event on September 21. Guests were treated to cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, and the park's sculptures set against the back drop of a sunny early autumn day.

"We could not have chosen a more appropriate date for this event than September 21, the autumn equinox," said Jacqueline Lewis, President of the Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park Board, in her address to the crowd. "A day of balance, a day when
the fullness of summer is realized, and the harvest of fall begins. A day to look back and look forward. Looking back to 1978, the park beginning, and looking forward, 2013, to this momentous occasion, the 35th anniversary of the Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park."In addition to Lewis, the event featured speeches from GSU President Elaine P. Maimon, as well as Rick Kogan of the "Chicago
Tribune" and WGN radio's "Chicago Live"! Susan Ormsby, Intermediate Past-President and Event Chair; Geoffrey Bates, Director and Curator of the Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park; and Jeanna Bridges, the U.S. Head of Diversity and Inclusion at BMO Harris Bank,
also spoke at the event.

In her speech to the crowd, Maimon spoke of the unity between the sculpture park and the campus of Governors State University. "The sculpture park and the campus are one," said Maimon. "Nathan Manilow's dream was to have the combination of a great university with very close access to a rail line, you know, going into the city, with the Park Forest community being part of that whole vision of community, access to all the great things in the center of the city in Chicago, and then the great cultural center here. And what we have now is really, in many ways, a fulfillment of Nathan Manilow's dream."

Maimon also spoke of the park's impact on GSU's student body. "Our students, our faculty, our staff, live in a sculpture park. It is
something that is part of our daily existence. It's not something that we have to say, 'let's make a plan and go to a museum,' and the museum is somewhere out there. The art is in here, for Governors State University. And it's in here for everybody," said Maimon.

In his address, Kogan expressed his admiration of the park, and discussed how the original vision of GSU's first President, William E. Engbretson, lives on through the sculpture park. Kogan said that Engbretson believed art could help to overcome dehumanization.

"Art can do that. Art does do that. And these sculptures began to come here in the 70's, and 35 years later thousands of students and parents and people like you have had the chance to see, and think, and discuss these (sculptures)."

Guests were treated to a golf cart tour of the park, with stops at the sculptures Paul, Yes! For Lady Day, House Divided, and the parks most recent addition, Windwaves. The Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park is open to the public 365 days a year from dawn to dusk, and admission to the park is free. Scheduled tours of the park are also offered for free from May through October. For more information, please visit www.govst.edu/sculpture for the current tour schedule.