Hockaday

We are grateful to have been recognized by AIA with the Community Honors Award for this collaboration.  We love sharing our passion for art, learning, and creativity with the community.

The 30-foot tall Centennial Sculpture is a unifying centerpiece celebrating and permanently commemorating Hockaday’s milestone year, and it was given to the School by the Class of 2014.

It all began when visual Arts Chairman Susan Sanders-Rosenberg proposed to the Hockaday Leadership Team the building of a permanent installation as part of the Hockaday Centennial celebration.  Hockaday was on board with this STEAM project which soon became produced through an interdisciplinary collaboration between Hockaday students, teachers, and the visiting artist Carlyn Ray.  This large-scale, site-specific (suspended from GFF Architects’ reinforced ceiling) sculpture combines  890 recycled glass elements all created by the diverse Hockaday community including students from every grade, as well as faculty and staff.

Basing their study of phyllotaxis and Fibonacci sequences in nature, Hockaday visual arts students create an initial design for The Centennial Sculpture.  The Centennial Senior Class votes on their favorite working design from the presentations.  Visiting glass artist Carlyn Ray guides math students as they collaborate with visual arts students in finalizing the sculpture’s design.

Students collaborate with faculty in the Science, Fine Arts, and Math departments and with Carlyn Ray to create individual glass tiles.  Over the course of the next two years, Carlyn Ray Designs, consulting engineers Kyle Heironimus and Amy Patrick (Hockaday alumna), Susan Sanders-Rosenberg, and Hockaday CFO JT Coats, work with the John Christian Designs team to make the sculpture a reality.