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| UMD's 'Fear the Turtle' Sculptures
Go on Auction
Maryland Newsline Thursday, Oct. 12, 2006 COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Susan Wilkes, a 1983 alumnus of the University of Maryland, plans to be on campus next week for an activity she hasn’t yet told her husband about. It’s nothing scandalous, but it could involve a large transaction of money. Wilkes, 45, said she expects to bid at one of the silent and live auctions being held Oct. 19 to sell off Fear the Turtle terrapins that have been gracing the campus and areas around the state and Washington, D.C., since last spring. The 50 sculptures - decorated by 50 different artists - celebrate the university’s 150th anniversary. “I think it’s something very cute and unique,” Wilkes said of the works of art. “What I’m going to do with it, I don’t know yet,” she said. She added she would need to see the turtles before making her mind up about what she would bid for one. “The price that I pay for it may be worth the look on my husband’s face when I come home with one, or when it’s delivered,” Wilkes said.
The silent and live auctions next week at the Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center are part of four turtle auctions scheduled for this month. Twelve sculptures will go in the silent auction, 19 in the live auction. Bidders must be invited, and requests for invitations can be made on the university Web site. Starting bids will begin at $500 to $1,000. Two online auctions, each for one sculpture, will also occur. The first began this week and will close at noon on Monday. The other will begin Oct. 20 and will last a week. Sponsors of the turtles, who paid for their cost and decoration, had the option of pre-purchasing those sculptures for an additional $3,500 beyond the $4,000 sponsorship cost. Sixteen sponsors opted to do just that.
Gary Sudhalter, 42, a 1985 alumnus, plans to attend an auction for one of the remaining turtles. He said he would like to have a sculpture to put in his backyard to show off his pride in the university. “I met my wife there the first day of school,” Sudhalter said. “I’ve been a huge fan with the sports teams doing better and better, the academic levels being increased there.” Another possible bidder is Janet B. Anderson, assistant director of finance at the School of Public Policy. She said she brought the idea of this kind of public art project to campus more than two years ago after a business management training event at the University of Kentucky. She saw how that university had done a similar public art project to raise money for a basketball museum. Proceeds from the Fear the Turtle sculptures will fund university scholarships. Anderson said she might bid on a sculpture created by her niece, called Diamonds of the Chesapeake. Anderson was also the artist who created the sparkling Metalli Terp, a brown turtle with the university’s red, black, gold and white globe icon on its belly. The design is composed of custom cut pieces of plastic backed with iridescent vinyl. The sculpture has already been purchased and will be displayed in the College of Health and Human Performance, from which Anderson received her undergraduate degree. The interest in the turtles has spanned beyond Maryland’s borders. Cassandra Robinson, associate director of university marketing, said she had received a call from someone in Connecticut wanting to know how long the turtles would be around. Robinson has managed the project, from working with the initial sculptor to decide what the base sculpture would look like, to recruiting artists from the community to create unique looks for each of them, to working with the university development department to get sponsors, to finding locations for the sculptures to be displayed. Thirty sculptures were displayed on campus; the other 20 found their way to communities in Prince George's County as well as to Annapolis, Baltimore, Silver Spring, Ocean City, service areas along I-95, Arundel Mills Mall and even Union Station in Washington, D.C. “The project really exceeded our expectations; it turned out to be a spectacular way to celebrate the university and involve so many of the constituents involved with the university in this one project,” Robinson said. Despite security measures, some sculptures have been subjected to vandalism. Robinson noted that the mortarboard on Testudo the Grad had been stolen and later broken. Some of the sculptures had been written on with markers.
The Trash Talkin' Testudo, made with recycled goods, was significantly damaged. Tuxudo’s hat disappeared. Some of the damage occurred when individuals climbed on the sculptures to take photos. Robinson said that the damage has been minimal; overall, she said they’ve received positive expressions of support. As for Robinson, the turtles have become an important part of her life. “I love them all; they’ve all become my babies,” she said. The turtles will not leave without some pomp and circumstance. On Oct. 18, a turtle parade will roll through campus at 10 a.m., ending at the Riggs Alumni Center. The turtles will be on display there from noon to 5 p.m., then auctioned off the following day beginning at 6 p.m. Copyright © 2006 University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalismm
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