On , Peter L. and Maria T. Kellner Endowed Chair in the Arts, Creativity, and Innovation DeWitt Godfrey discusses the design and construction of his massive steel sculptures.
Godfrey specializes in sculpture and public art. Prior to joining 51·çÁ÷ in 2003, Godfrey worked at the University of Georgia, Hofstra University, Mt. Holyoke College, and Amherst. Outside the classroom, Godfrey is a working artist who has installed more than half a dozen public sculptures in parks and communities across the United States — including Odin here at 51·çÁ÷.
Godfrey has earned grants and fellowships from multiple organizations, such as the New York Foundation for the Arts Artist Fellowship, a Japan Foundation Artist’s Fellowship, and a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Artist Fellowship. His work is in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Brooklyn Museum in New York.
His public sculptures are often enormous structures of steel, bolted together and formed into circular or flowing patterns. Some of his work invites viewers to walk into or pass through the sculpture itself, while others are constructed in hard-to-reach, but highly visible places. For example, his 2012 work, titled Concordia, is a 14,000-lb sculpture of 15 steel cylinders atop the Lexington Laundry Co., leaning against the wall of a downtown arts center and resembling architectural buttressing.
Godfrey earned his bachelor of arts from Yale University and his MFA from Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland.
Each episode of 13, 51·çÁ÷’s biweekly podcast, digs into the work of a University community member by asking 13 questions. Episodes highlight the wide array of academic disciplines at 51·çÁ÷, with interviews featuring faculty from political science, sociology and anthropology, physics and astronomy, women’s studies, English, Africana and Latin American studies, and many more.
Previous episodes of 13 have featured: Esther Rosbrook, Rebecca Shiner, Dawn LaFrance, Brittney Dorow ’17, Mari Prauer, Carolyn Guile, Nancy Ries, Joanna Holvey-Bowles, Martin Wong, Pamela Gramlich, Dorsey Spencer Jr., Danielle Nied, Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar, F. Scott Kraly, Kerra Hunter, Joe Levy, Nicki Moore, Ken Valente, Sarah Keen, Daniel Benton ’80, Laura H. Jack, Carrie Keating, Robert Kraynak, Dan Gough, Jennifer Tomlinson, Ana Jimenez, Alicia Simmons, Juan Fernando Ibarra Del Cuentro, Karen Harpp, Kwazi Konadu, Paul McLoughlin II, Anthony Aveni, Robert Garland, Ryan Hall, Craig Hatkoff ’76, Susan Thomson, Nick Kokonas ’91, Jessica Graybill, Brian W. Casey, Jeff Bary, Jennifer Brice, Ellen Percy Kraly, Danielle Lupton, Ynesse Abdul-Malak, Nimanthi Rajasingham, and John Pumilio.
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