More Art on Campus
College of Engineering
The “guerilla” sculpture, commonly referred to as “Screw Job,” was created by alumni of the College of Engineering in the Boettcher Center Courtyard in reaction to the College’s abrupt, unannounced closure in 1975. The plaque on the piece reads: “As engineers at dear old DU, we worked and studied to make her true. We worked until we brought destruction, then she decides to cause our extinction, but don’t laugh, it may happen to you. University of Denver, College of Engineering 1918 to 1975.”
Location: Boettcher Center Courtyard
Donors & Founders
Sheila Carrasco, Portrait Busts of Claude Boettcher, Charles Boettcher, and Charles Boettcher II, 2000, bronze
The Boettchers were committed to education and funded the Boettcher Center for Science and Engineering, and Research at the University of Denver. Charles I founded Great Western Sugar, the largest beet sugar company in the US., ran a prosperous hardware store in Boulder, and eventually expanded all over Colorado. He moved to Denver and built a grand mansion in Capitol Hill. His son Claude and grandson Charles II were also successful businessmen and continued Charles I’s philanthropic traditions in Colorado. The busts by Sheila Carrasco commemorate the generosity of the Boettchers.
Location: Boettcher Center Courtyard
Lamont School of Music
Kathi Caricof and Madeline Wiener, The Spirit of Music, Bas-relief sculpture
Local artist Kathi Caricof collaborated with Madeline Wiener on this limestone relief sculpture that adorns the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver.
Location: North Façade of Newman Center
Cable Center
David Griggs, Earth Station Sculpture, 2001
Donor: Joseph S. and Irene Gans
Property of the Cable Center [an independent 501(c)3 organization]
David Griggs designs and builds site-specific works for public spaces. Griggs utilizes the elements of a site – such as formal, social, cultural, environmental, or historical characteristics – to create a work that compliments and enhances its location. The artist demonstrates a playful regard for formal qualities, an appreciation for the functional needs of a site, and an acute social and historical awareness. Griggs explains, “I hope to delight the viewer with physical and formal elements, but what I’m really looking for is that lucid ‘a ha!’, that act of recognition when truth is found in humor, when identity and meaning are found in metaphor.”*
*David M. Griggs, “Artist’s Statement,” ArtistsRegister.com, https://artistsregister.com/artist_info.phtml?memberId=153&number=CO195
Location: Front Courtyard
John Greene Hall
Ed Wittrock, Untitled, mid-late 1970s, steel
Ed Wittrock’s Untitled is comprised of three flowers grouped in a pot with six leaves extending over the sides. A mushroom appears below the leaves. The sculpture was formed by explosive charges conducted in experiments by Wittrock, the Denver Research Institute, the Larry Brown team of engineers, and Bill Howell.
Location: West Side of John Greene Hall
Learn about art in the Harper Humanities Garden.