The Student Government Association’s latest achievement will allow students another way to express themselves on campus. A fountain containing a sculpture from artist Joan Miro will be installed Friday, Sept. 19, in the Danna Center courtyard with a dedication ceremony planned for the following week.

In an effort to personalize the centerpiece, SGA will be seeking student statements that will be inscribed in the tiles lining the fountain.

This is the second project of SGA’s Campus Beautification Initiative. The first project of this program was the fence around the residential quad.

According to the official SGA statement regarding the fountain, Michelle LeBlanc-Fine, a Loyola University alumna and owner of French Fountains Inc., is donating a portion of the cost to re-finish Miro’s piece.

“The creation of the fountain project initiative, the alumni coordination involved and all other costs associated with the project were taken care of courtesy of the Student Government Association 2008-2009 Campus Improvements Campaign,” SGA President Cade Cypriano, political science senior, said.

Other planned Campus Beautification Initiative projects include a community garden, new benches in the Residential Quad similar to the benches in the Palm Court and new landscaping.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Miro designed a series of sculptures and ceramics for the garden of the Maeght Foundation in St. Paul en Foret, France, in 1964. He was one of the first artists to develop automatic drawing, which is drawing with a random hand to express the subconscious, to change previous techniques made in painting.

Along with Andre Masson, he represented the beginning of the surrealist art movement. However he was not strictly a surrealist because he wanted to have the freedom to express in other artistic styles. One of his most famous works was his only glass mosaic moral, “Personnage Oiseaux.”

Jess Burrola can be reached at [email protected].