The Polasek cel­e­brated its 50th anniver­sary in 2011. These next 50 years have kicked off to a remark­able start – and it’s because of YOU!  As vol­un­teers, donors, mem­bers, ven­dors and guests, you have ALL made 2012 a won­der­ful year. We are proud to share with you the suc­cesses you helped to  cre­ate.  

Sculp­ture Gar­dens: Accord­ing to mes­sages left  in 2012 in the Polasek guest­book, your sup­port has helped make: “a slice of heaven,” “par­adise,” “spec­tac­u­lar grounds,” “gar­dens I’ll never for­get,” and the list goes on. We hope you smile know­ing the breath­tak­ing, serene and abun­dant beauty you have made possible.

Man Carv­ing His Own Des­tiny Gar­den Redesign: Many her­ald the 1961 lime­stone ver­sion of Man Carv­ing His Own Des­tiny, which greets all guests as the enter the Museum’s grounds, as Mr. Polasek’s most inspi­ra­tional piece. Com­pleted after a stroke par­a­lyzed the left side of his body, it is one of Mr. Polasek’s largest and last com­pleted works. It is truly one-of-a-kind and has never been moved from the loca­tion where is cur­rently rests. Your dona­tions have made it pos­si­ble to give this pow­er­ful piece a home wor­thy of its message.

Lake­side Trel­lises: With your dona­tions, these trel­lises were installed on the Lake Osce­ola lawn in the spring of 2012. Look how they’ve bloomed!

Golf Cart & Stor­age Unit: Your gen­eros­ity made it pos­si­ble for us to receive this golf cart. Now we are able to accom­plish four times more gar­den­ing in one day as we were with­out it. Plus, the safety of the accom­pa­ny­ing stor­age unit ensures we’ll have this impor­tant tool for years to come. Thank you!

 

 

The Per­ma­nent Col­lec­tion: Since our incep­tion, the largest num­ber of acces­sions of Mr. Polasek’s work occurred in 2012. Because of you, the fol­low­ing pieces have returned home. 

Spirit of the Woods: A small bronze sculp­ture that The Polasek had never before pos­sessed. This piece per­fectly depicts Mr. Polasek’s abil­ity to per­son­ify his love of nature in his work. It came up for auc­tion in May 2012 and your dona­tions made its pur­chase possible.

The 1915 George D. Widener Memo­r­ial Gold Medal: The most pres­ti­gious prize Mr. Polasek received dur­ing his acclaimed career. The Widener Gold Medal was estab­lished in 1912 by the Penn­syl­va­nia Acad­emy of Fine Arts to rec­og­nize “the most mer­i­tous work of sculp­ture mod­eled by an Amer­i­can citizen.”

But­ter­fly: This is the epit­ome of an Albin Polasek piece, depict­ing the per­fect com­bi­na­tion of fan­tas­ti­cal whimsy and rep­re­sen­ta­tional anatomy. As you can see in the pic­ture below, this piece was for­merly adorned atop the arch­way into the front court­yard. How­ever, its where­abouts have been unknown for decades. With your help, it is finally return­ing home.

Young Eve: Orig­i­nally cre­ated when he was still a stu­dent, this piece demon­strates Mr. Polasek’s for­mal train­ing in clas­si­cal fine art. His abil­ity to cap­ture the beauty of the quin­tes­sen­tial human form cat­a­pulted his pres­tige in the world of sculp­ture and likened com­par­isons to iconic sculp­tors from past generations.

 

Con­ser­va­tion: With your sup­port, we have been able to take on con­ser­va­tion efforts for sev­eral of Mr. Polasek’s sig­nif­i­cant works. In 2012, a num­ber of sculp­tures were cleaned, waxed and treated to ensure con­tin­ued beauty and longevity.

 

Mother, located in the front of the grounds, now shines marvelously!

The Emily Foun­tain pool was resur­faced, painted and sealed. A new pump ensures con­ser­va­tion of this hard work!

St. Fran­cis and his beloved ani­mals also thank you for their makeover!

Increased Capac­ity: Over the past few years, The Polasek was awarded two chal­lenge grants. Many of you rose to these chal­lenges and gen­er­ously matched the con­tri­bu­tions of The Gal­loway Fam­ily Foun­da­tion and The Edyth Bush Char­i­ta­ble Foun­da­tion to hire two pro­fes­sion­als, a Cura­tor and a Devel­op­ment Direc­tor. Well, 2012 marks the year that we saw your dona­tions come to life…quite lit­er­ally!! We were thrilled to wel­come to our team Rachel Frisby, our Cura­tor, and Michelle Mar­tino, our Devel­op­ment Direc­tor. Both Rachel and Michelle bring expe­ri­ence and knowl­edge in their fields and will con­tribute greatly to ensur­ing the long-term health and vital­ity of our beloved his­toric home & sculp­ture gar­dens. Through their work, the impact of your dona­tions con­tin­ues to mul­ti­ply with the con­tri­bu­tions they are mak­ing at The Polasek everyday. 

Thank you so much for believ­ing in our impact and our future. Click here to donate and help make future projects possible!