Students were greeted back to campus Monday with a familiar sight north of the Memorial Union. The tall chain-link construction fencing around the Fountain of the Four Seasons was torn down and new maidens have made their appearance – something that had been missing for nearly two years.
The original Fountain of the Four Seasons, created by Christian Petersen, was a gift from VEISHEA and is seen as one of the hallmark Iowa State symbols, along with the Campanile and Cy. Petersen has many works across Iowa State’s campus, from Conversations to George Washington Carver. According to University Museums, 80% of Petersen’s works are included in the Christian Petersen Art Collection at Iowa State.
Brad Hill, the associate director of the Memorial Union for operations, said the inception of the restoration project was a collaboration between University Museums and the Memorial Union.
“Over the years, the deferred maintenance of the fountain became way too much, and also the museums department had begun to see deterioration on the maidens themselves, so much so that you couldn’t see the original chisel forms anymore, which is where 70 years of freeze in the fall had really affected them,” Hill said.
Hill said a key decision in recreating the maidens instead of replacing them with different designs is due to the historical nature of the maidens and the fountain itself.
“So based on the university’s Christian Petersen Museum and everything that he meant to this campus as an artist in residence back in the day, it was very important for them to go back to the original intent of what those statues were,” Hill said.
The original intent is “very important,” according to Hill.
“And so the word that you hear over and over through all of our construction and management planning has been original intent,” Hill said.“ So making sure that we are honoring Christian Petersen’s collaboration with the Meskwaki tribe and have its type of the university, plus it’s one of the most iconic views of campus.”
“I think what it means to students is it’s just, it’s one of the most well-known works of art on campus. It’s the centrally located fountain, and it’s just very, you know, it’s calming,” Megan Moore, a marketing specialist for the Memorial Union said.
“When it was gone for 21 months, it was definitely missed,” Moore said. It used to be a full-on chain link fence. And so it looked like a construction zone. Now you can see it coming together. And so I think there’s a lot of excitement around that as well.”
Director of the Memorial Union Chad Garland further emphasized the importance and popularity of the fountains.
“When people heard I was interviewing at Iowa State, the first thing they talked about was, ‘Oh, they have that beautiful fountain with the maidens out in front.’ The second thing was the swans,” Garland said.
Garland also said even people who have not spent a lot of time here understand how iconic the fountain is and how much it leaves an impression.
According to a 2022 Inside Iowa State article, Lynette Pohlman, the director and chief curator of University Museums, said the new maidens were replicated by using the original sculptures as models, as well as utilizing Petersen’s plaster models as a second reference.
A public rededication ceremony for the Fountain of the Four Seasons will be held on October 4, with remarks from Iowa State President Wendy Wintersteen, Student Government President Martin Hursh and Lynette Pohlman.
