Last July, telecommunication senior Ashley Stout was walking by the Reitz Union when she saw something out of the corner of her eye that caused her to do a double take.
Students last summer and returning students this fall could probably finish her sentence.
"It was just a statue," Stout, 21, said.
Since July, when UF and the Gainesville Community Redevelopment Agency put together "Crossing Paths," students have been fooled into thinking statues were people and even people were statues.
Starting today, the removal process of the 15 on-campus statues will begin, with the exception of "Whispering Close."
The 20-foot-tall sculpture in the Plaza of the Americas will be here to stay until March.
The rest will return to the artist's studio in New Jersey and will likely become part of other international exhibitions over the next year, according to Paula Stoeke, director of The Sculpture Foundation, which is based in California.
UF spokeswoman Janine Sikes said the initiative was brought forth by the College of Fine Arts and funded with $35,000 from the Provost Discretionary Fund, which uses donations funneled through the University of Florida Foundation.
The other 10 statues in downtown Gainesville, which cost $21,000 and were funded by city sponsorships, will be removed Tuesday, said Sarah Vidal-Finn, senior analyst of Gainesville Community Redevelopment Agency.
College of Fine Arts spokesman Andy Howard said the program "Crossing Paths" was designed to bridge Creative B, an opportunity to explore arts and culture during the Summer B semester, with National Arts and Humanities month in October.
The role of the statues downtown and on campus is to begin conversation about public art and start dialogue about what the city should look like, Howard said.
"It's about public participation.It's made to be interacted with in a way a lot of other art isn't," Howard said. "The point of it wasn't to curate. The point was to have a discussion."
Lucinda Lavelli, dean of the College of Fine Arts, said compared to other major universities UF is lacking in its sculpture holdings.
"I hear a lot of comments that ‘we never get to see the arts, they're always going on inside, behind theaters, in galleries,'" Lavelli said. "The sculptures are part of making the environment more creative and interactive."
The removal process of the 15 "Crossing Paths" on-campus statues will begin today, including Seward Johnson's "Nice to See You," which can be seen from inside Einstein Bros. Bagels in the Hub.
