Massive sculptures of a mastodon and a mammoth that once graced the walls of the Cleveland Zoo’s old pachyderm building will be reinstalled outside the Cleveland Museum of Natural History as part of its renovation. Steven Litt of the Plain Dealer reports:
The museum announced plans on Thursday to install the much-beloved sculptures on a 32-foot-high, freestanding limestone wall along Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in its new West Garden, part of the institution’s five-year, $150 million expansion and renovation.
Evalyn Gates, the museum’s director, said Wednesday that the sculptures would function as a showpiece at one of the major entry points to University Circle, the city’s cultural, educational and medical district.
The sculptures were removed in 2008, when the Zoo demolished the old building, and have been in storage ever since.
The relocation is a homecoming of sorts. The sculptor, legendary designer and artist Viktor Schreckengost, taught at the Cleveland Institute of Art — also in University Circle — for nearly 70 years. Among his many students were John Nottingham and John Spirk, whose company has been based in this vibrant Cleveland neighborhood for more than 40 years.
Nottingham Spirk designed CMNH’s logo, in the early ‘70s with a calligraphy pen and can be seen to the left and right of Schreckengost’s sculptures. Other images of the installation are available here.
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