The installation of a new kinetic sculpture at Brenau University that literally moves with the wind and reflects light from all directions with its polished metal surfaces is designed to demonstrate Brenau’s long-standing commitment to sharing all forms of art and arts programs with the communities it serves.
Created by North Carolina sculptor Mike Roig, the piece called “Luminary 830” now resides alongside one of Gainesville’s most-trafficked thoroughfares where it is easily accessible to hundreds of motorists and pedestrians each day. The location is part of an ongoing renovation and improvement of the Brenau University campus entrance plaza on Green Street bordered by Academy Street and the Jacobs Building. The sculpture features a windmill-like rotating flame and a counter-rotating base. Roig said he took his initial inspiration for the work from the Brenau logo and its motto, “as gold refined by fire.”
“Luminary has the associations with light and the associations with flame, but it also has aspirational hope that ‘What you’re churning out there is a bunch of luminaries from that school,’” Roig said. “I hope all those budding young graduates who come out of there live up to that aspiration.”
An anonymous donor commissioned and paid for the artwork as well as some of the ongoing improvements to the plaza area. The North Georgia Community Foundation and the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce Vision 2030 public art committee facilitated the Brenau art installation initiative.
“We are very grateful to the donor of this marvelous, innovative work of art for selecting the Brenau campus as the locale for sharing it with the public,” said Brenau President Ed Schrader.
Luminary 830 is the second piece of sculpture in the plaza. The first is an enormous bronze sculpture of a golden tiger – the Brenau mascot – by Cumming artist Gregory Johnson, who has other works on the Brenau campus. Brenau students named the tiger Lucile, in honor of Lucile Townsend Pearce, the wife of longtime Brenau President H. J. Pearce.
“The new Mike Roig piece will enhance that desire for people to engage with art,” Schrader said. “Indeed, the donor specified to Mike that the sculpture had to have ‘Instagram-ability’ so individuals could share selfies and other photos through their social media networks. The Lucile sculpture has already become an artistic landmark in Gainesville and Hall County with both residents and visitors to the community stopping by to see it and photograph it.”
Schrader said that Brenau will have a formal dedication of the Roig work once plaza renovations are farther along.
