The Brown Arts Institute Showcases Beloved Statues, from Bronze Bruno to Marcus Aurelius

A new program at Brown University aims to share some of the school’s hidden gems scattered around the East Side campus: its public art installations. Launched in April, the Brown Arts Institute offers student-led public art walking tours; free tours are held on Saturdays and Sundays through November, and are intended to make art on the Ivy League grounds accessible to visitors, potential students, and the larger community. 

“It’s really a nice way to connect Brown with the community,” says Nicole Wholean, Brown’s registrar and curator of campus collections, who also serves on Brown’s Public Art Committee. “We’ve had families, people that are visiting the college, people that have just moved to Providence, and former professors on the tour.”

The program has its origins in the pandemic, when the state’s Take it Outside campaign was in full swing. “I recognized a need for some public programming,” says Wholean. “During the pandemic, I thought it would be safe to have tours of our outdoor art collection.”

She began working to develop a pilot tour with students, including Béatrice Duchastel de Montrouge (class of 2023), who now works at the Museum of Work and Culture in Woonsocket. Research included experiencing public art tours around the region first-hand, with visits to Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA and the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, MA, among others. Says Wholean, “I took a tour at Princeton and it was the same model; people just show up and it happens. The free tours are fully accessible, and can be adjusted on the fly to accommodate all visitors.”

These efforts led to the development of 40-minute tours, each designed by the students who lead them. “We have a cohort of 15 trained interpreters, who were instructed to use the pilot tour developed by Duchastel de Montrouge or develop their own,” says Wholean who notes that most of the students opted to plan and curate their own tour. “Students are encouraged to select about six or seven works of art and talk about those on their tour.”

Each tour is unique, but many stop at notable works found on the Brown campus, from classical statues including the stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius, unveiled on campus in 1908, to more recent works including Martin Puryear’s Slavery Memorial, an iron and stone sculpture that acknowledges the university’s connections to the trans-Atlantic slave trade, as well as the contributions that Africans and African Americans made to building the university.

Bronze Bruno, the giant bear who once stood guard at Marvel Gym on Elmgrove Avenue and is now located under the Faunce Arch, is the start point for the Saturday tour, while the Circle Dance sculpture by alum Tom Friedman is where the tour begins on Sunday.

“People enjoy visiting Brown’s campus. The tours are designed to speak to all ages; we’ve had children attend. It’s a nice way to learn a little more about the institution,” says Wholean. “Brown has a really great public art collection, and I don’t think a lot of people know about it.”

Take a Brown Public Art Tour any Saturday or Sunday beginning at 1pm. No advance registration is required, rain or shine. Learn  more at Arts.Brown.Edu/spaces/public-art/public-art-tours