Students in Christine Owen's prep ceramics and 3D design class watched the installation of Sitter with Head in Hands by Joy Brown (third from left) in the fall.
By Darryl Gangloff
Sculptures by artist Joy Brown are providing peaceful places on campus for the Hotchkiss community.
Brown’s seven-foot sculpture Sitter with Head in Hands found a new home on Oct. 15 just south of the crosswalk on Route 41, its peaceful gaze looking toward Ford Food Court. Students in Christine Owen’s prep ceramics and 3D design class watched as the bronze figure was gently placed on the grass. They closely inspected Brown’s work and spoke with the artist about her process; the huge statue began its life much smaller as wood-fired clay.
A month later on Nov. 14, Brown returned to Hotchkiss to install Recliner with Head in Hands near Main Building. A poem on the statue's foot reads, "Be still here — listen now — we are you and me together."
A third sculpture arrived on Jan. 28. It can be found next to the Recliner and depicts a figure with a child.
Brown works in her studio in Kent, CT, and will have a show in Hotchkiss's Tremaine Art Gallery opening on Feb. 15, 2025, to help commemorate 50 years of women at Hotchkiss. The exhibition is curated by Owen and Joan Baldwin P’03, curator of special collections.
The statues will be on campus through May. Brown welcomes visitors to touch her sculptures and provide them with scarves, hats, or other apparel. Brown writes on her website that her figures "speak to me of that peaceful place in myself—calm, open, aware."
Baldwin added that when you visit these sculptures, "you'll find that peaceful place too.”