Color Your Campus!

About the Retriever Project:

           

           The Retriever Project is an effort to design and place fiberglass Retriever statues (36" tall, 42" - 44" long and 14" - 16" deep) on the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) campus.  Each design will represent what it means to be a UMBC retriever and will be chosen by a committee similar to the Prove-IT Committee.  The designs of each statue will be the best artistic designs submitted to The Retriever Project Design Contest.  Designs can be submitted by any member of the UMBC community.    The statue designs will then be painted onto the statues and sealed by art students.  Then, the statues will be placed onto granite bases on the UMBC campus, as displays of the spirit of UMBC.  After four years, the statues would be either sold at an alumni auction or sold to outside donors and appear off-campus.  Plaques would also appear on the granite bases and would be auctioned off to raise money to sustain The Retriever Project and allow it to become a UMBC tradition. New statues will be designed every year.

As a young institution, UMBC is still developing traditions that support community connectedness throughout the school year.  ‘Community’ is defined as “the binding together of individuals towards a common cause or experience.”  ‘Connectedness’ can be manifested in school spirit, public art, student involvement, and sense of belonging. We feel that the current traditions at UMBC do not provide sufficient opportunity for members of the UMBC community to celebrate the expression of UMBC values.  There are few traditions that produce awareness and lasting material symbols of UMBC values.

The goal of The Retriever Project is to address the need for more engaging traditions at University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC).  By creating fiberglass retriever statues that will be designed as a result of a competition open to all UMBC members, this project strives to promote a sense of place and connectivity on campus.  The Retriever Project will yield visible and tangible symbols of UMBC values which will be displayed in the very places where students and staff converge.  Ultimately, the project’s hope is to spread community and augment school spirit around campus as well as the surrounding off-campus community.  The Retriever Project is a tradition that would engage students, faculty, staff, and other community members throughout the entire year.  This project represents creativity, teamwork, and school spirit. Most importantly, The Retriever Project represents UMBC campus spirit in a novel and interactive way.  Let's color our campus!