Prairie Dogs and One-Room Schoolhouse
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Title
Prairie Dogs and One-Room Schoolhouse
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Artist
Judith Stewart
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Location
Green Valley Ranch Recreation Center
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Neighborhood
Gateway/Green Valley Ranch
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Year
2006
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Artwork Type
Public Sculpture
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Material
bronze (metal)
What People Are Saying
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10 people say Photogenic
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6 people say Family Friendly
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6 people say Hidden Gem
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5 people say Thought Provoking
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4 people say Love it
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2 people say Interactive
About This Piece
“Prairie Dogs and One-Room Schoolhouse” consists of three prairie dogs, ranging in size from 32″ to 54″ and one -room schoolhouse, 24″x 26″x 32″ in size, both cast in bronze. In the process of determining what art would be appropriate for the site, the artist took into account the history of the location and its characteristics. The history and identity of the place is that of the prairie. The buildings of Green Valley Ranch include an elementary school, which brought to the artist’s mind the one-room schoolhouses of 100 years ago. The one-room schoolhouse became a man-made feature of the prairie landscape and a symbol of education in rural America, as well as a place where families came together. Inhabiting this natural landscape, along with the human settlements, were flourishing colonies of prairie dogs.Drawing from these two ideas, recognizing and remembering this recent history, it seemed a given to the artist that she choose prairie dogs and a one-room schoolhouse as art for the site. She reversed the scale, however, with the prairie dogs large and the schoolhouse small, as though seen at a great distance from the vantage point of a prairie dog. Whimsy and humor were important to the artist in this interpretation, thus the addition of a small prairie dog with a backpack as though he is going off to school.
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