New art installation pays homage to math, science education

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  • Townhouse Park Art Installation   2
  • Townhouse Park Art Installation   1
  • Each tower features art patterns conceptualized by local artist Deedee Morrison. ANDREA MABRY / University Relations
  • Each tower features art patterns conceptualized by local artist Deedee Morrison. ANDREA MABRY / University Relations

The Townhouse Park is home to a new art installation — three laser-cut stainless steel towers with programmed LED lighting. Each tower features art patterns conceptualized by local artist Deedee Morrison and inspired by sketches and notes from former UAB faculty, staff and students found in the UAB Archives; one features chalkboard-style mathematical equations, with the other two displaying illustrations inspired by the view through a microscope. The light towers have sequenced, program lighting that changes every few minutes.

4th Drawing 1
Dendritic Paper 1
Mitochonidria Paper 1
Synapse Paper 1

Images from the UAB Archives

Much of Morrison’s inspiration was derived from the UAB Archives’ Toole Family Papers collection, which documents a multi-generational family originally from eastern Tennessee that settled in Talladega, Alabama, in 1865. Four generations of the Toole family practiced medicine in Alabama, and the collection was donated in 2016 by Arthur F. Toole III, M.D. It is his school notes and sketches from his time in medical school at UAB, pictured above, that caught Morrison’s eye during a trip to the Archives.

The new installation will join the more than 35 other statues or sculptures housed on campus, viewable on the 2-mile East Campus public art trail.

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