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Thanks to the generous donors and visionary artists, George Mason’s campuses are home to a treasure trove of sculptures, paintings, and installations that inspire and engage the George Mason community and visitors alike.

In addition to being Virginia’s largest university, an accredited arboretum, and a living lab where faculty and student researchers test new ideas, George Mason is also a vibrant open-air museum that anyone can experience.  

Scattered across its four campuses, the university’s public art—which includes work by student artists—reflects its commitment to creativity, inclusivity, and community engagement.  

The public art at George Mason serves several functions: It enhances the aesthetic appeal of the campuses, promotes intellectual curiosity, provides experiential learning, and offers an opportunity to engage with art outside traditional museums. These works transform common spaces into cultural landmarks and reinforce the university’s identity as a place where a variety of ideas and disciplines converge.  

Consider one of the Fairfax ��������’s iconic landmarks— the George Mason statue. Each May, right around Commencement, students in caps and gowns gather around the 10-foot-tall bronze George Mason to have their graduation photos taken with him. Sometimes there is even a line of people waiting for their turn. Students also rub the toe of his right shoe for good luck throughout the year. 

Like most of the artwork on the university’s campuses, George was a gift. When people talk about donors giving their time, talent, and treasure—this is the literal treasure.  

“Giving is more than a transaction—it’s an investment in the future,” says Trishana E. Bowden, vice president for advancement and alumni relations and president of the �������� Foundation. “Whether people give their time, talent, or treasure, their generosity fuels innovation, expands opportunities, and transforms lives. Our donors are the cornerstone of progress, making it possible for institutions like George Mason to thrive and inspire the next generation.” 

In the Beginning 

George the statue, sculpted by artist Wendy M. Ross, was a gift of the George Mason Arts Gala Committee, which was led in the 1980s and 1990s by then-first lady Joanne Johnson, wife of George Johnson, the university’s fourth president. The committee commissioned the sculpture in August 1995, covering 93 percent of its $159,000 cost. When the statue was dedicated with the Johnson Center in 1996, it was the first 3D depiction of George Mason in U.S. history. 

The Arts Gala Committee was behind the acquisition of several items on display around the Fairfax �������� including Cross Cottage by Mason Pond. Each year, beginning in 1983, Joanne Johnson led a group of women in crafting an item they would later auction off to fund the performing arts and cultural projects at George Mason. Often the auctioned items were donated back to the university. One of the more visible items produced is the Mason Heritage Quilt from 1984, which is on display in the Center for the Arts lobby.  

Cross Cottage, constructed by Cross Builders in 1988, was assembled in sections inside the Patriot Center (now EagleBank Arena), where the Arts Gala was held, so attendees could tour the small structure. The cottage soon found its home beside Mason Pond, along with some other sculptures. 

The Arts Gala Committee played a critical role in the fundraising efforts for the Center for the Arts. It took 10 years of fundraising and three years of construction to make the center a reality. And the last names of those early arts patrons are still present at the university today: Dewberry, Peterson, Hazel, and Toups, among others.  

The statue on Wilkins Plaza has a twin on the other side of the globe. In 2019, Mason Korea installed its own George Mason statue in Songdo. Created by sculptor Kim Tae Jin at Yebon Artworks in Korea, the installation of this George was supported by Mason Korea’s parents association. 

The University’s Art Collection 

The university’s art collection, managed by University Curator Don Russell, encompasses paintings, photographs, prints, and sculpture from across time periods and world regions. The collection has grown over the years to include more than 3,000 objects, including 240 works of African art and around 70 plaster casts on loan from New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

The university received its first donations in the early 1980s, including lithographs by the surrealists Salvador Dalí and Joan Miró, and the 1 Cent Life Portfolio that contains 62 original lithographs by renowned masters of pop art and hard-edged or biomorphic abstraction such as Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. 

As a part of the College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) Mason Now campaign priorities, Mason Arts is seeking support to develop conceptual plans for a university museum. A dedicated art museum would build on the university’s robust Mason Exhibitions programs—including seven galleries on all three Northern Virginia campuses and allow for the collection to be shared with the public under high curatorial standards. A museum would also provide valuable research, teaching, and educational opportunities for the George Mason community. 

The Story of the Plaster Casts 

If you’ve taken classes on the Fairfax �������� since 2000, you have probably encountered one of the plaster casts on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The collection includes casts of sculptures from the Temple of Olympian Zeus in Greece, a relief from Orsanmichele church in Florence, and a block from a Parthenon frieze from the British Museum, among others. 

Carol Mattusch, then Mathy Professor of History and Art History, led the acquisition of the Met’s plaster casts, which were not in the best condition after being stored in a Bronx warehouse for more than 70 years. Mattusch, now Professor Emerita of History and Art History, saw the cleaning and researching of the casts as a hands-on opportunity for students. 

In 2006, when George Mason students Anna Zacherl, BA History ’06, and Lucy R. Miller, BA Art History ’06, learned that several additional plaster casts from the Met’s collection were available for purchase, they headed to Sotheby’s auction house in New York City, where they bid on and bought the casts on behalf of an anonymous donor. Thanks to their efforts and private support, the 19th-century casts of famous works will grace George Mason’s campuses for years to come. 

Communitas and Other Sculptures 

After the George Mason statue, Communitas, the bronze depicting three figures on the Holton Plaza beside the Center for the Arts, is probably one of the most recognizable sculptures on the Fairfax ��������. Installed in 1993, it is the work of Polish artist Azriel Awret and one of several of his works on campus. Others include The Cello Player and Two Musicians in the Center for the Arts lobby. 

George Mason alumni might remember Awret’s Woman in a Hammock, which was installed in the breezeway between Robinson Halls A and B. The sculpture was removed during the construction of Horizon Hall and now reclines in the courtyard between Horizon and Harris Theatre. Awret’s sculptures were donated to the university by his brother, Charles, who was president of the Maywood Building Corporation in Springfield, Virginia. 

Many people enjoying the grove of cherry trees by Mason Pond have encountered one of the university’s most distinguished outdoor sculptures. Antecedent by artist Lila Katzen is on extended loan to the university from the National Gallery of Art. 

Mason Square 

Fairfax isn’t the only George Mason campus with sculptures. Mason Square is home to two sculptures by internationally renowned artist Greg Wyatt. The 4,300-pound bronze Bill of Rights Eagle sits outside of Hazel Hall and shows a bald eagle standing on top of the U.S. Bill of Rights, protecting the document with its seven-foot wingspan. This bronze was donated to the Antonin Scalia Law School in 2017 by the artist and the Newington-Cropsey Foundation. 

Wyatt returned to campus in 2018 for the dedication of his bronze statue of law school namesake U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, with an audience of 400 that included five U.S. Supreme Court justices. 

Science and Technology �������� 

In 2017, the Science and Technology �������� also received a bronze. The statue of Charles J. Colgan, created by Waynesboro artist Robert Brickler, was unveiled on the former state senator’s 90th birthday outside the building that bears his name. Colgan, a World War II veteran who served 40 years in the Virginia Senate, was instrumental in helping secure the land that became the SciTech ��������.  

At the dedication, Mary Finnegan, Colgan’s daughter, said, “This statue will immortalize Dad, sitting in front of a building that bears his name on the site of the university he so loved. It doesn’t get any better than that.” 

The campus was also the first home of the Hilde Vogel-Michalik Art Collection. Since 2005, Harold C. Vogel has donated more than 2,000 pieces of his wife’s artwork, as well as some of his own. The collection can be found displayed in many university offices and buildings, including Fenwick Library. A sculpture garden is being planned for the SciTech �������� that will include Vogel’s sculptures. 

Faculty Gifts 

George Mason faculty members have also shared their collections of art and other items, such as books, maps, and papers, with the university.  

In 2019, Professor Emeritus of Management David A. Kravitz began sharing his collection of Haitian paintings with George Mason. Kravitz’s father, the late Boris Kravitz, assembled the collection and founded the Haitian Art Company in Key West, Florida, which he ran until 2009. 

Working with Mason Exhibitions, the Costello College of Business has some of the paintings from the David A. Kravitz Collection on display in the dean’s office in Enterprise Hall. The Haitian collection is moving to the Writing Center in the Johnson Center this summer as a part of an ongoing program to enrich learning environments with art.  

Students in art history professor Michele Greet’s ARTH 495/595 Curating an Exhibit class also had the opportunity to work with the Kravitz collection. Their exhibit La Vie Quotidienne in April 2022 showcased 29 paintings and two sculptures by 23 artists from Haiti in the Art and Design Building’s Gillespie Gallery of Art, which is named for School of Art patrons Gardner and Stevie Gillespie.  

Some faculty member collections, like the historical postcard collection of Associate Professor Emeritus of History Randolph H. Lytton, are a part of the University Libraries’ Special Collections and Research Center and can be explored online. 

Gallery and Exhibition Spaces 

Mason Exhibitions, directed by Russell, manages and curates seven gallery spaces across George Mason’s three campuses and the Potomac Science Center in Virginia. These include the Buchanan Hall Atrium Gallery, Fenwick Gallery at Fenwick Library, and the Gillespie Gallery of Art on the Fairfax ��������, as well as the Buchanan Partners Art Gallery in the Hylton Performing Arts Center on the Science and Technology ��������.  

Founders Gallery is inside Van Metre Hall at Mason Square, and Mason Exhibitions Arlington is located a short distance from the campus. 

Imagining an Arts District  

As a part of CVPA’s Mason Now priorities, university planners are not just reimagining the Center for the Arts, they are also envisioning the center and its environs as a destination. Through the creation of an arts district that encompasses the center, Mason Pond, and beyond, George Mason will become a destination for experiencing the arts across a variety of disciplines—performing and visual—to benefit those on campus and the community at large. 

Rick Davis, CVPA dean, says some of this is happening naturally with the placement of artwork in the areas surrounding the center, and more donations of sculptures and other art are underway.  

Davis says he foresees a day when people attending an event at the center would have the opportunity to wander through a sculpture garden before or after the performance. Or perhaps guests could attend an outdoor performance beside Mason Pond. 

Davis emphasizes the importance of integrating art into the fabric of campus life. “Public art is a way of embedding creativity into our daily routines. It allows us to see the world through different lenses, interrupting our headlong rush through the day and sparking conversations that may not otherwise happen,” he says.