A couple of years of work paid off Thursday afternoon as Iowa State saw “Air Spiral,” a large steel sculpture, come to life in front of the Student Services Building.

The newest addition to the Art on Campus program was the result of three artists’ efforts, says Rachel Hampton, communication specialist for university museums.

“Susan Feine was responsible for the primary design and Tom Stancliffe was more instrumental in the fabrication and installation,” she says.

Glenn Williams was the third artist who contributed time to the piece, working with Stancliffe as they crafted the 1,200-pound sculpture for about four weeks in Cedar Falls.

Hampton says the process, from search committee to installation, which began about two and a half years ago, culminated in three hours. “I was documenting the installation for archival purposes within the museums,” she says. “It went very well today. They had a big crane that lifted it off a flatbed trailer, then placed it . polished it a little and it was done.”

Hampton says the sculpture is about as new to her as it is to the campus.

“I haven’t really had much time to digest it, but my gut reaction is I really like it,” Hampton says. “It spirals around and I think that it kind of symbolizes empowerment, the spiraling upward kind of symbolizes intellectual thought.”

The sculpture was not specifically intended to represent an ISU Cyclone, or the Olympic Torch, although Lynette Pohlman, director of university museums, says she expects multiple readings of the sculpture to include these interpretations. Pohlman says the art committee of the Student Services Building wanted a statue to represent the process of students growing and maturing, and that “Air Spiral” achieves this task.

“It represents the idea was of assisting students to be accelerated in their academic and professional careers,” Pohlman says.

Funding for the sculpture, which cost $22,000, was provided by the Iowa Art in State Buildings Program, which requires that 0.5 percent of building costs for state buildings to be spent on public artwork. Some funding also came from private donations.

A dedication for “Air Spiral” will be held on Sept. 24 at noon in front of the Student Services Building entrance. Suzanne Zilber, staff psychologist and committee member, and GSB President T.J. Schneider will both speak at the event.