2025 University City Public Art Series addresses progress and legacy
2025-03-28 • Caitlin Custer
“Let’s Meet Here Again,” proposal by Peter Nesin, BFA ‘25
The University City Public Art Series, a decades-long collaboration between WashU’s Sam Fox School and neighboring University City, returns this spring with three temporary public art installations in Janet Majerus Park addressing the politics of progress, forgotten legacies, and the changing natural world.
“Held in Absence” by Maya Dabney, BFA ’25, uses photography and cast concrete, to reflect on the erasure of Mill Creek Valley, a once-thriving Black neighborhood in St. Louis that was bulldozed for the construction of Highway 40. Through memory and material, Dabney invites viewers to consider how progress is often built on loss, challenging us to reckon with the lasting impact of displacement on collective history.
In “Honoring the Unseen: A Tribute to the Women of St. Louis,” Eloise Harcourt, BFA ’25, celebrates the overlooked contributions of women in St. Louis. Featuring larger-than-life corporeal sculptures embedded with body imprints, Harcourt creates an evocative experience of remembrance and invites viewers to learn more about their legacies through a QR code that links to an audio story.
Peter Nesin, BFA ’25, commemorates our planet’s long history and offers perspective on our changing natural world in “Let’s Meet Here Again.” The recreation of a scene from 150 million years ago features three extinct mammals interacting with a dawn redwood, a species of tree once widespread in the Northern Hemisphere.
The seniors have been working since fall 2024 under the guidance of Associate Professor Arny Nadler to develop their proposals, pitch them to the Municipal Commission on Arts & Letters of University City, and realize the production and installation of the work. The program is the longest-running project of its kind in the United States. Since 1986, the project has brought more than 200 pieces of temporary art to the community. Some of these pieces have even become permanent fixtures in the University City landscape, such as “The Rain Man” fountain which sits in the Delmar Loop.
The 2025 series opens Sunday, April 6, with a reception from 1-3 p.m. at Janet Majerus Park, where the works will remain on view until Labor Day.
Using photography and cast concrete, Held in Absence reflects on the erasure of Mill Creek Valley, a once-thriving Black neighborhood bulldozed for Highway 40.
Honoring the Unseen celebrates the overlooked contributions of women in St. Louis.
In Let’s Meet Here Again, three extinct mammals interact with a dawn redwood, a species of tree once dominant in America.