Western Washington University Public Sculpture Collection

[2][3] The collection contains thirty-six public sculptures[4] spanning 190 acres of the Western Washington University campus.

[5] In 1957, the board of trustees of Western Washington University established a policy that encouraged public art on the campus.

[3] The first work added to the collection, commissioned by Paul Thiry,[6] was James Fitzgerald's Rain Forest, in 1960.

[3] Campus architect Ibsen Nelsen commissioned Isamu Noguchi's "Skyviewing Sculpture" in the 1960s.

[6] Funding for the acquisition of the works in the collection came from a combination of sources that included the state's one percent for art law, The Virginia Wright Fund,[7] and the National Endowment for the Arts [8] The collection is overseen by the director of the university's Western Art Gallery.