About Fletcher Benton

Fletcher Benton (1931-2019) graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1956. From 1964 to 1967, he taught at the San Francisco Art Institute as an associate professor, and from 1967-1986 he was a professor of art at San Jose State University. He is known for his kinetic sculptures of movement, but he began his career as an abstract painter in the 1950s. Benton was awarded the 2008 ISC Lifetime Achievement Award.

About ISC Endowment and On Loan Programs

The ISC Endowment program helps to secure the future sustainability of the International Sculpture Center. For more information about the ISC Endowment or On Loan programs, please contact Johannah Hutchison at executivedirector@sculpture.org.

About diRosa Center for Contemporary Art

Located in scenic napa valley, di rosa center for contemporary art engages its community in the connective power of art and nature through its permanent collection of northern california art, contemporary exhibitions, and thought-provoking educational programs that inspire creativity and curiosity.

di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art offers visitors refuge to view the art of Northern California in a singularly unique setting. Protected in perpetuity under the Napa County Land Trust, the site features multiple galleries, a sculpture park, and a 35-acre lake, all located on 217 scenic acres in Napa Valley’s famed Carneros region.

Video Credits

Folded Circle Disc and Arc, 2013 de-installation, trucking and installation images 2021 Photo Credit: Michael Roby © 2021 Fletcher Benton/Artists Rights Society (ARS)New York Photo and Video Credit: Katie Kime of diRosa Center for Contemporary Art Music courtesy bensound.com

It is an independent charitable trust (number 1067908) and registered museum situated in the 500-acre, 18th-century Bretton Hall estate in West Yorkshire. Founded in 1977 by Executive Director Peter Murray, YSP was the first sculpture park in the UK, and is the largest of its kind in Europe, providing the only place in Europe to see Barbara Hepworth’s The Family of Man in its entirety alongside a significant collection of sculpture, including bronzes by Henry Moore, and site-specific works by Andy Goldsworthy, David Nash and James Turrell.
 
YSP mounts a world-class, year-round temporary exhibitions programme including some of the world’s leading artists across six indoor galleries and the open air. Recent highlights include exhibitions by Tony Cragg, Not Vital, KAWS, Bill Viola, Anthony Caro, Fiona Banner, Ai Weiwei, Ursula von Rydingsvard, Amar Kanwar, Yinka Shonibare MBE, Joan Miró and Jaume Plensa. More than 80 works on display across the estate include major sculptures by Phyllida Barlow, Ai Weiwei, Roger Hiorns, Sol LeWitt, Joan Miró and Dennis Oppenheim.

YSP’s driving purpose for 40 years has been to ignite, nurture and sustain interest in and debate around contemporary art and sculpture, especially with those for whom art participation is not habitual or familiar. It enables open access to art, situations and ideas, and continues to re-evaluate and expand the approach to considering art’s role and relevance in society. Supporting 45,000 people each year through YSP’s learning programme, this innovative work develops ability, confidence and life aspiration in participants.
 
YSP's core work is made possible by investment from Arts Council England, Wakefield Council, Liz and Terry Bramall Foundation and Sakurako and William Fisher through the Sakana Foundation. 

‘Britain’s first and finest sculpture park’ BBC Arts

Dennos Museum Center and Michigan Legacy Art Park will co-hosted a live roundtable of talented Michigan artists engaged in a lively conversation about sculpture, their process, and the big picture but also how this emergency is shaping or influencing the creative sector. Pour a cocktail, sit back and follow this unique chance to explore this fascinating medium. Join Lois Teicher from Detroit, Maureen Bergquist Gray from Interlochen, Brian Ferriby from Maple City led along by moderator John Sauvé from Detroit.

Michigan Legacy Art Park enriches and inspires lives year-round through creative public programs that connect Art, Nature, and History together into new experiences. Founded by internationally acclaimed artist David Barr in 1995, the Art Park is a natural extension and reflection of his work and global influence. Barr was awarded the Governor’s Michigan Artist Award in 1988. In his acceptance speech, he told the audience of his desire to create a Michigan Art Park—a place where artists could tell the story of our state in and through the fundamental materials of nature. In his assessment of our state at that time, there was something missing – a place that expresses Michigan’s history through the arts. Illustrations or artifacts of that history already existed, but he wanted contemporary artists to bring that history to fresh and vivid life.

Michigan Legacy Art Park is non-profit organization located on a 30-acre preserve of wooded hills in Benzie County. The land is generously leased from Crystal Mountain for $1 per year. The partnership between Crystal Mountain and Michigan Legacy Art Park has been from its inception one of a shared vision. This relationship is based on a unique model of appropriately shared land, facilities and staff support. Because of this sustainable model, the Art Park uses its resources efficiently and garners the support of individuals, foundations and corporations to provide mission-driven activities.

2019 marked ISC's first year collaborating with Josephine Sculpture Park (JSP) on a residency program. Sherwin Rio, a 2019 Student Award recipient participated in a 4 week summer program living and working on JSP's campus surrounded by artists, professionals, park visitors and sculpture immersed on campus. Sherwin Rio shared his about residency experience and work (THE SPIRIT'S WORK IS SHARED LIFTING) that he made while in residence at JSP.

Sherwin Rio shared his about residency experience and work that he made while in residence at JSP. 
"THE SPIRIT'S WORK IS SHARED LIFTING (2019) is a sculptural installation at Josephine Sculpture Park (Frankfort, KY) of hand-cut and engraved Indiana limestone sourced nearby and repurposed pallet wood, rope, and metal found on-site. The work responds to local community dialogue addressing white supremacist nationalism in the central Southeastern region of the United States.

THE SPIRIT'S WORK IS SHARED LIFTING positions the Filipinx bayanihan - a walking home-relocation method that involves group-carrying a house structure across many shoulders - as an aspirational metaphor for the continual counter-narrative work being done in Frankfort and its surrounding areas. In this sculptural reimagined bayanihan, which can translate to a unified spirit of community work and cooperation, community efforts has seemingly lifted and carried - or will lift and carry - a bare, unmounted limestone base for an unseen commemorative statue/monument. As limestone is historically one of the foundational mineral resources that helped build industrial Frankfort and the surrounding Upland South, the empty monument base beckons viewers to themselves visualize a hopeful future built atop it.

THE SPIRIT'S WORK IS SHARED LIFTING asks viewers to imagine a more inclusive, dignified, and reciprocative future achieved through the acknowledgement of and respect for immigrants, refugees, and people of color in a dominantly white historical narrative. It is through the constant work of self-implication and shared lifitng and uplifting that we can move forward. Placed atop supply pallets and sawhorses in the new-growth meadow, a place of transition, the sculpture is always seemingly ready to be moved. Additionally, the work is intended to beckon the physical and cognitive effort of its viewers from a distance to draw close.

This work was made only by the help of many. Partially inspired by JSP's successful fundraising "barn-raising" event to restore its tobacoo barn, the work is about community effort, just as in the act of barn-raising. Thank you to those who welcomed me into some understanding of Frankfort past and present including: Russ Hatter at the Capital City Museum, Becky Shipp at the Frankfort Immigration Assistance Network, Rebekah Berry at Focus on Race Relations, and Frankfort City Commissioner Katrisha Waldridge. Thank you to thsoe artists on-site who mortar-and-pestled ideas with me, this piece is yours as much as it is mine: Josh Trombley, Jackie Ta, Riley Fichter, Taylor Wright, Alex Gelderman, and Lucy Azubuike. Shout out to Justin Belichis and Lindsay Howland for bouncing ideas and metaphors with me through the process. A tremendous thank you to Director Mel VanHouten, Program Coordinator Jeri Howell, Park Manager BJ Duvall, and the ever-large community including the Board and Volunteers that help run Josephine Sculpture Park. Thank you to the many, many others who spoke with me about my work in Frankfort, Lexington, and Lawrenceburg, even if it was just for 5 minutes. Lastly, thank you to the International Sculpture Center for providing artists with a platform and diving board of resource and support."
Read more about Sherwin’s experience in his Residency Blog. 

Josephine Sculpture Park believes the ARTS are for EVERYONE!

JSP’s mission is to connect people to each other and the land through the arts. JSP provides creative arts and nature education to our community and transformative opportunities to artists while conserving the beauty of Kentucky’s native, rural landscape.

JSP’s vision is to be a leader in our community that respects and reflects diverse voices and ideas through shared, creative experiences and responsible land stewardship practices.