Collaboration with AKG brings public art to campus

A new piece of public art has found a long-term home on the South Campus, thanks to what is hoped to be an enduring relationship between UB and the AKG Art Museum.

“Sit,” by Tonawanda native Sarah Braman, was installed on Diefendorf Quad, between Crosby and Diefendorf halls, last October. It’s on loan to UB for five years, with an option to renew, says Daniel Seiders, a landscape architectural planner in Campus Planning.

“Sit” is a 25,000-pound, solid concrete sculpture similar to a catch basin but fabricated according to Braman’s specifications so it could feature two glass windows — one purple and one a shade similar to UB blue. “It’s meant to be interactive as a piece of furniture,” Seiders says, with a ledge at seat-height inside the structure and the glass openings serving as lenses to the outside.

“Sit” and a companion piece by Braman, “Stay,” had been installed on the lawn of Graycliff, the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house on Lake Erie, as part of Braman’s AKG exhibition “Finding Room.” The first collaboration between the curatorial and public art departments to take place outside the museum’s campus, “Finding Room” opened at Graycliff in July 2022. It featured pieces exhibited inside the house, as well as the exterior sculptures.

When viewing of the outdoor pieces closed on Oct. 1, 2023, “Stay” was moved to the grounds of the AKG along Lincoln Parkway near the Seymour H. Knox Building across from Hoyt Lake. Seiders explains that Aaron Ott, curator of public art at the AKG and a member of UB’s Public Art Committee, had initially offered UB the opportunity to display the sister piece, “Sit,” in April 2023, and the university began exploring possible locations and making arrangement to transport the piece from Graycliff.

The original thought, Seiders says, was to install “Sit” on the North Campus spine, but members of the Public Art Committee “realized it may be most appreciated by the School of Architecture and Planning, and would fit in better as the centerpiece of Diefendorf Quad.”

“Sit” was finally craned into place Oct. 24, 2023.

“We are delighted with the impact the piece has had on the quad and the reception it has received from the South Campus community,” says Kelly Hayes McAlonie, director of campus planning. “We look forward to building our relationship with the AKG and adding more public art to our three campuses.”

Seiders agrees, adding that UB would like to continue “exploring opportunities to connect our campus communities to the cultural enrichment that public art provides.”