Media conact: Shannon Thomason
Stacey Holloway, MFAThe University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Stacey Holloway, MFA, will design and create a public sculpture as part of the new University of Alabama System Art Trail. The trail aesthetically links the campuses of UAB, University of Alabama in Huntsville and University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
The trail is the inaugural recipient of the McMahon-Pleiad Prize, a $75,000 one-time award established by the system’s Board of Trustees to honor trustee emeritus John J. McMahon Jr. and advance artistic collaboration between institutions. The award will be shared equally among the campuses to fund project expenses. Holloway, assistant professor of sculpture in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Art and Art History, represents UAB, while UAH’s Chris Taylor, assistant professor in the Department of Art, Art History and Design, and UA’s Craig Wedderspoon, professor of sculpture in the Department of Art and Art History, will represent their schools.
Holloway, Taylor and Wedderspoon will work alongside student teams to create a durable, well-crafted public sculpture that enhances the visual aesthetics of each campus; the pieces will visit each campus for two-year periods before returning to the campus of origin for permanent installation. Each team is expected to unveil their work before June 2019.
Holloway’s student team will include four seniors majoring in studio art: Chase Prater, Elizabeth Gioia, Eric Powell and Anthony Smith.
“This project will encourage a true sense of collaboration between faculty and campuses,” Holloway said. “Not only that, but it will also illustrate to both current and prospective students and employees of each system school how dedicated we are to innovative education opportunities and to showcasing creativity on our campuses.”
Holloway is the co-editor of “Warmest Regards: Letters to a Young Caster,” a collection of letters addressed to a fictional young iron-caster, written by 21 iron-casting pioneers — many of them first-generation, fine art iron-casters and significant contributors to iron-casting culture. Her latest exhibit, “Not to be Otherwise,” was created as part of her 2017 SECAC Artist’s Fellowship and appeared in the Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts in fall 2018.