UF’s College of the Arts is attempting to buy two dragonfly statues on display in its courtyard.
The statues, “Water Landings” and “Sun Catcher,” were installed next to the building July 4, said Amy Vigilante, the director of UF’s University Galleries. Nobuho “Nobi” Nagasawa designed and made the two statues for Creative B, a Summer program that combined students from UF’s art programs.
Creative B aims to showcase public art around UF’s campus, she said.
The college wanted to choose artwork from Nagasawa, a faculty member at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York, that focused on insects, she said.
Vigilante declined to say how much the statue cost to make, saying the details of the cost are complicated. UF doesn’t usually pay more than $100,000 for art, she said.
“We’ve been doing a lot with entomology lately, so for our piece we brought dragonflies in,” Vigilante said, referring to the ant statues located near the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Right now, the dragonfly statues are on loan for a year, she said. UF’s University Galleries have considered adding more dragonfly statues around campus.
Kristen Curington, a UF landscape architecture sophomore, said she hopes the dragonflies stay.
“I think they’re a nice addition to the Fine Arts courtyard,” the 19-year-old said. “We should have more art pieces around campus.”
Two new dragonfly statues stand outside of the UF College of the Arts building facing Southwest 13th Street.
