Mustang Statue Senior Project
apr 11, 2016 - Apr 12, 2016
On April 11th, a group of 10 ARCE seniors completed their senior project, a 10’ tall mustang statue, and installed it in Kennedy Library. The mustang statue will remain in Kennedy Library from April 12th through the end of June as part of the Kennedy Library’s “Living Library” exhibit. The group designed and constructed two mustang statues out of recycled and reclaimed materials over the course of only 8 weeks.
Inspiration from the project came from artist Ivan McLean, who approached the library administration suggesting a statue for the exhibit. Craig Baltimore, who earlier this year installed a 20’ tall K’Nex model of the Sears Tower in the library’s atrium was approached to gather a team of ARCE seniors to carry out the design and construction of the statue.
The project was challenging because they had to design the model to fit into the space in the 2nd floor of the library. Constructability was a huge consideration in the design-build project because the statue needed to be carried up the stairs to its final location. As a result, the statue was designed to be split into multiple pieces to accommodate the constructability challenges.
Throughout the course of this project, the ARCE seniors got a chance to think outside the box, as most of the coursework throughout the ARCE program does not require this intensive of an artistic consideration. They had the opportunity to work with an artist and learn how to build in the real world. All members of the group learned to weld as the space frame statue was put together completely from the bottom up.