Hemi Flora, a world peace sculpture that travels internationally, will be on display Saturday, Oct. 20, for one day only, on the lawn outside Shultz Hall on the Virginia Tech campus.

The Hemi Flora is an air- and helium-filled, nylon and polyethylene sculpture that reaches heights of 50 feet and a diameter of 600 feet. New York musician/composer Clifton Hyde composed an original musical work for the sculpture, which plays throughout the exhibition. Hemi Flora is the brainchild of Lou Rizzolo, who heads the art, science, and technology collaborative Big Think, and is a professor emeritus at Western Michigan University.

On Friday, Oct. 19, at 5:30 pm, Rizzolo will discuss “Collaborations in Art, Science, and Technology at the Haymarket Theater in Squires Student Center. The lecture is free and open to the public.

The lecture and exhibition are funded by the Visiting Artist Program of the Virginia Tech Art and Art History Department and the Art Museum of Western Virginia (AMWV) Curatorial Partnership.

The Big Think Team is composed of Site Director Marc Rizzolo, who directs Art/Tech Michigan; Starr Commonwealth Fine Arts Director Nobel Schuler, who directs Outreach and Black River Public School Michigan; and Peter Middleton, an artist and teacher who directs Education/Collaboration. Leading operations on the team is Ryan Flesher, sculptor and teacher at Central Michigan University’s Department of Art.

The College of Architecture and Urban Studies is one of the largest of its type in the nation. The college is composed of three schools and the Department of Art and Art History, part of the multi-college School of the Arts. The School of Architecture + Design includes programs in architecture, industrial design, interior design, and landscape architecture. The School of Public and International Affairs includes programs in urban affairs and planning, public administration and policy, and government and international affairs. The Myers-Lawson School of Construction, a joint school of the College of Architecture and Urban Studies and the College of Engineering, includes programs in building construction and construction management. The college enrolls nearly 2,000 students offering 24 degrees taught by 153 faculty members.

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