MSC OPAS will reveal on Sunday a sculptural tribute to its 40th anniversary that has been two years in the making and is meant to capture the program’s arts-centered essence.
Anne Black, associate director of the MSC, said the sculpture, ADAGIO, was commissioned by donors and begun two years ago, in OPAS 40th year. The program is now in its 42nd season.
The sculptor, Larry Schueckler, Class of 1975, said each part of the sculpture tells a story of movement.
“That was a very important theme in the sculpture,” Schueckler said. “There will be stories that will be personalized if you look at it. It is not just the sculpture of a figure, there is a progression of events, there is a story that unfolds and each person will see it differently.”
The name is a representation of the movement within the static sculpture, Black said. ADAGIO means “slow movement” in music.
Even the sculpture itself was slowly and uniquely made, Schueckler said. He used tools that were enlarged six times the size of a regular work tools, and even took a rib from a cow to carve pieces of the sculpture.
“There is such a wide range of things on stage at OPAS, it is the same we wanted for the sculpture — that everyone could get something out of it,” Schueckler said.
OPAS brings performing arts to the students of Texas A&M, Black said, and they want the sculpture to represent that.
“To have this beautiful sculpture outside of the Rudder facility, which houses a lot of art events, I think it is wonderful to signal that there are arts happening there,” Black said.
Schueckler said the sculpture will require a math-and-science-centered campus like Texas A&M to think a little differently.
“Quite often we think in terms of, ‘What does this do for my career and the financial return?’ But there is more to life than just that, and I don’t mean recreation and enjoyment,” Schueckler said. “Watching a ballet, it is all movement to tell a story, you are required to pay attention to learn and use different senses other than analytical, you are required to look at things in different ways.
The unveiling will be at 5:30 p.m. in the Rudder Complex Plaza.
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Sculpture honors OPAS’ 40 years
Photo by Allison Bradshaw
Statue will be unveiled Sunday at 5:30 p.m.
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