Perpich Center Alumnus to Create Sculpture at The School
By Sue Webber, Sun Newspapers March 3, 2005
A New Hope native, now an artist in New York, has been commissioned to create a sculpture on his home turf.
Dean Ebben, 30, a 1993 graduate of the Perpich Center for Arts Education in Golden Valley, is working on plans for a 6-ton public sculpture called “Building Blocks.” It will be made out of Golden Buff limestone from a Minnesota quarry and built on the grounds of the school, 6125 Olson Highway.
“‘Building Blocks’ is for the school, but it is also for the community and the state of Minnesota,” Ebben said in a telephone interview from New York last week. “When I began to think of a public sculpture for the Perpich Center for Arts Education, certain aspects of what this public sculpture should incorporate became self-evident to me,” Ebben said.
“The sculpture should reflect the hopes, dreams and aspirations of the students, faculty, alumni and visitors of the Perpich School for themselves, their families and their world community. As a public art piece, the sculpture needs to be interactive.”
The stone itself is an important aspect of the sculpture, he said. “The limestone is dated at 500 million years old and had formed at the bottom of a great ocean in this region,” he said. “Not only will the sculpture tell a story, but the stone itself will tell a story of history and geology through the many sedimentary layers of the stone.” The limestone will be cut into four blocks and stacked one on top of the other, Ebben said. “The blocks will not sit perfectly stacked, but in a way that will give the sculpture movement, texture and depth,” Ebben said. He noted that limestone is important to the history of the state and has been used in the construction of many buildings and bridges in Minnesota.
A total of 400 holes will be cut into the sculpture, each 1 inch in diameter and 3 inches in depth. “These holes will be a place where people can insert paper scrolls with text, photographs and drawings reflecting their ideas, goals, dreams or memories,” Ebben said. “People who come to see the sculpture would be able to look at the paper scrolls left by individuals.
“Maybe the scrolls will become bird nests, or they may just fade away with the elements, the snow, the rain, the wind. The paper scrolls will create an organic and beautiful surface that will contrast the stone.” Ebben is suggesting that a flat, smooth surface be created around the sculpture, possibly garden tiles, so people can move around the sculpture freely and comfortably.
“The sculpture should reflect the hopes, dreams and aspirations of the students, faculty, alumni and visitors of the Perpich School for themselves, their families and their world community. As a public art piece, the sculpture needs to be interactive.”
The process to select an artist for the sculpture began with an artists’ competition, according to David Flannery, interim executive director of the Perpich Center. The school received 10 proposals, Flannery said. “We were looking for a proposal to honor [the late] Gov. Perpich,” Flannery said. “We have no established recognition of him. We were looking for a piece of art to remind people who he was and what an important part of our history he was.” It was during the Perpich administration that the Minnesota Legislature passed a law creating the state arts school that eventually located on the site of the former Golden Valley Lutheran College. The school opened in 1989 and enrolls 300 11th- and 12th-graders from around the state who are accepted through an application process.
The sculpture will cost $40,000 installed, Flannery said, and the school currently is planning for fund-raising to get the money for it. “As a state agency, our funding has been reduced,” Flannery said. Once the funding is secured, Flannery said, school officials hope Ebben will return to his alma mater to talk with officials about where the sculpture should be sited. “We hope he’ll do some teaching about his work here, too, about how the idea was conceived,” Flannery said. People who contribute to the fund for the sculpture will receive recognition in some way, Flannery said, perhaps with their names on bricks placed in the walkway around the sculpture.
“Maybe the scrolls will become bird nests, or they may just fade away with the elements, the snow, the rain, the wind. The paper scrolls will create an organic and beautiful surface that will contrast the stone.”
Flannery and Ebben traveled together to a quarry in the Mankato area in December 2004 to scout out the limestone to be used for the sculpture. “It’s just a gorgeous stone; it’s a yellowish color,” Ebben said.
Ebben said he got the idea for the sculpture while he was recovering from an appendectomy. “I was walking along the East River in New York, with all the rocks and stones, and it came to me, even the title,” he said. “I’m intrigued with the way the paper and stone will work together. It will be very tactile and organic at the same time.”
“Building Blocks” will not be Ebben’s first sculpture of notoriety. He was commissioned to sculpt a piece of art in New York City to commemorate the tragedy that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001. The sculpture, titled “Waiting,” is installed in a garden at United Nations Church in Manhattan, just doors away from the United Nations.
For information about donating to the sculpture fund, call The Perpich Center for Arts Education 763-591-4719
