Internationally renowned artist to install public sculpture

Acclaimed artist Andy Goldsworthy's Road Line is set to be installed on the College of the Atlantic campus. The winding, continuous line of granite curbing will meander from the sidewalk by the main road all the way down to the sea.
Credit: Andy Goldsworthy

Comprised of a single continuous line of granite curbstones, Road Line will begin its journey through campus at Route 3 and draw its path to the coast of Frenchman Bay. Taking from the tradition of granite curbstones that edge many of the roads in East Coast towns and cities, Goldsworthy has actively worked in granite throughout the Northeast where there is still a lively granite industry.

“One would be hard pressed to name an artist who more emphatically lives the COA human-ecological ethos than Andy Goldsworthy,” says COA President Darron Collins ’92. “Andy’s presence here and the permanence of the installation will have a tremendous impact on the campus and the region.”

Funded largely by two anonymous donors who are passionate about the piece’s potential to intersect the study of human ecology and to create a world-class work of public art in Downeast Maine, Road Line will be an expression of human and geological movement.

Road Line, by Andy Goldsworthy, to be installed on the College of the Atlantic campus, will be the artist's first permanent work in the State of Maine. Credit: Andy Goldsworthy “Road Line would only become apparent as an artwork after it has left the ‘straight and narrow’ and goes its own way,” Goldsworthy said of the piece upon proposal. “I hope this will resonate with the students who will also pass through the college on their own journeys and that, wherever life takes them afterwards, they will always be reminded of their time in Maine whenever they see a curbstone. It would be the antithesis of the definition of curb, which is to control or limit.”

In addition to Goldsworthy’s time on campus for installation, he will take part in the COA Summer Institute: Reimagining Exploration, July 31-August 4, held in collaboration with The National Geographic Society. Goldsworthy will be in conversation with Courtney J. Martin, PhD, Paul Mellon Director of the Yale Center for British Art. For more information, visit coa.edu/summerinstitute.

More about Andy Goldsworthy
In a diverse career spanning four decades, Andy Goldsworthy has become one of the most prominent and iconic contemporary sculptors. In photographs, sculptures, installations, and films, Goldsworthy documents his explorations of the effects of time, the relationship between humans and their natural surroundings, and the beauty in loss and regeneration.

Recent permanent site-specific installations by Goldsworthy include Walking Wall,
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri; Watershed, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts; Stone Sea, Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri; Chaumont Cairn, Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, France; Path and Rising Stone, Albright Knox Art Gallery, New York; and Wood Line, Artist Andy Goldsworthy is known for his site-specific installations involving natural materials and the passage of time. Credit: Andy Goldsworthy StudioPresidio of San Francisco, California. Goldsworthy is currently working on Hanging Stones in North York Moors, UK. In this ongoing project, ten existing buildings, all in varying states of disrepair, have been or will be rebuilt as artworks and connected by a six-mile walk encompassing Northdale, near Rosedale Abbey.

Other permanent works can be seen at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; de Young Museum, California; Museum of Jewish Heritage, New York; Storm King Art Center, New York; Stanford University, California; and Haute Provence Geological Reserve in Digne-les-Bains, France, among numerous other sites. Major solo exhibitions of Goldsworthy’s work have been presented by the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, England; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Spain; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Neuberger Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, California; and Des Moines Art Center, Illinois.

The artist was born in Cheshire, England, in 1956, and is now based in Scotland.

About College of the Atlantic
College of the Atlantic is the first college in the US to focus on the relationship between humans and the environment. The intentionally small school of 350 students and 35 faculty enriches the liberal arts tradition through a distinctive educational philosophy—human ecology. A human-ecological perspective integrates knowledge from all academic disciplines and from personal experience to investigate—and ultimately improve—the relationships between human beings and our social, natural, built, and technological environments. The human ecological perspective guides all aspects of education, research, activism, and interactions among the college’s students, faculty, staff, and trustees. Learn more at coa.edu.