Misericordia University

Hanging sculpture dedicated in honor of President MacDowell
10-18-12

President MacDowell is retiring in June 2013.

Misericordia University recently unveiled and dedicated a mobile sculpture by Fort Collins, Colo., artist Mel Ristau, which is suspended from a skylight in the Harold and Sally Rosenn Lobby of Sandy and Marlene Insalaco Hall. Entitled, “Red Stones 3b,” the piece was commissioned by Tina MacDowell and dedicated to her husband, Michael A. MacDowell, university president, who has announced he will retire from his post in June 2013.

The installation is located just outside the entrance to the Pauly Friedman Art Gallery and involves more than 200 individual pieces. It took more than 10 hours to assemble by Mrs. MacDowell’s brother, Erick Johnson, a fellow sculptor and friend of Ristau, who traveled to Pennsylvania specifically to install the sculpture.

Ristau earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in design from The University of Kansas School of Fine Arts. He has exhibited works in the United States, Europe and Japan, and has installed more than 20 monumental sculptures in corporate, healthcare and university facilities across the U.S., including Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colo.; University of Nebraska, Omaha, Neb.; University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, Colo., and Robert Wood Johnson Children’s Specialized Hospital, New Brunswick, N.J. He resides in Fort Collins, Colo.

Caption:

Members of the Johnson and MacDowell families were on-hand for the dedication of the suspended mobile sculpture, ‘Red Stones 3b,’ in the Harold and Sally Ann Rosenn Lobby of Sandy and Marlene Insalaco Hall at Misericordia University. Shown, from left: Tina (Johnson) MacDowell, Erick Johnson, Donna (MacDowell) Weiss, and Kirk MacDowell.