The Button (sculpture)
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The Button (sculpture)
''The Button'' (officially, ''Split Button'') is a modern art sculpture that lies at the center of campus at the University of Pennsylvania. It was designed by Swedish sculptor Claes Oldenburg, who specializes in creating oversize sculptures of everyday objects. Specifications *Total cost: $100,000 including transportation and installation ($37,500 from University, $37,500 from the National Endowment for the Arts, and $25,000 in contributions raised by Mrs. H. Gates Lloyd, chair of the Visual Environment Committee that chose the piece.) *Weight: 5000 lb (approx. 2,270 kg) *Materials: Reinforced aluminum *Size: 16 ft (4.89 m) diameter Controversy When ''The Button'' was installed in front of the Van Pelt Library on June 18, 1981, it was met with much controversy. Some students found the structure intrusive, and a poor addition to College Green. Controversy surrounding the piece has subsided in the years since 1981, but either way, it is now a central landmark an ...
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Claes Oldenburg
Claes Oldenburg (January 28, 1929 – July 18, 2022) was a Swedish-born American sculptor, best known for his public art installations typically featuring large replicas of everyday objects. Another theme in his work is soft sculpture versions of everyday objects. Many of his works were made in collaboration with his wife, Coosje van Bruggen, who died in 2009; they had been married for 32 years. Oldenburg lived and worked in New York City. Early life and education Claes Oldenburg was born on January 28, 1929, in Stockholm, the son of Gösta Oldenburg and his wife Sigrid Elisabeth née Lindforss. His father was then a Swedish diplomat stationed in New York and in 1936 was appointed consul general of Sweden to Chicago where Oldenburg grew up, attending the Latin School of Chicago. He studied literature and art history at Yale University
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Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading intellectuals of his time, Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, a drafter and signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, and the first United States Postmaster General. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his studies of electricity, and for charting and naming the current still known as the Gulf Stream. As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove, among others. He founded many civic organizations, including the Library Company, Philadelphia's first fire department, and the University of Pennsylvania. Isaacson, 2004, p. Franklin earned the title of "The First American" for his early and indefa ...
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Aluminum Sculptures In Pennsylvania
Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has a great affinity towards oxygen, and forms a protective layer of oxide on the surface when exposed to air. Aluminium visually resembles silver, both in its color and in its great ability to reflect light. It is soft, non-magnetic and ductile. It has one stable isotope, 27Al; this isotope is very common, making aluminium the twelfth most common element in the Universe. The radioactivity of 26Al is used in radiodating. Chemically, aluminium is a post-transition metal in the boron group; as is common for the group, aluminium forms compounds primarily in the +3 oxidation state. The aluminium cation Al3+ is small and highly charged; as such, it is polarizing, and bonds aluminium forms tend towards covalency. The strong affinity towards ...
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1981 Sculptures
Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, FMLN launches its first major offensive, gaining control of most of Morazán Department, Morazán and Chalatenango Department, Chalatenango departments. * January 15 – Pope John Paul II receives a delegation led by Polish Solidarity (Polish trade union), Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa at the Vatican City, Vatican. * January 20 – Iran releases the 52 Americans held for 444 days, minutes after Ronald Reagan is First inauguration of Ronald Reagan, sworn in as the 40th President of the United States, ending the Iran hostage crisis. * January 21 – The first DMC DeLorean, DeLorean automobile, a stainless steel sports car with gull-wing doors, rolls off the production line in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland. * January 24 – An 1981 Dawu ea ...
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Outdoor Sculptures In Philadelphia
Outdoor(s) may refer to: * Wilderness *Natural environment * Outdoor cooking * Outdoor education *Outdoor equipment *Outdoor fitness *Outdoor literature *Outdoor recreation *Outdoor Channel, an American pay television channel focused on the outdoors See also * * * ''Out of Doors'' (Bartók) *Field (other) *Outside (other) *''The Great Outdoors (other) The Great Outdoors may refer to: * The outdoors as a place of outdoor recreation * ''The Great Outdoors'' (film), a 1988 American comedy film * ''The Great Outdoors'' (Australian TV series), an Australian travel magazine show * ''The Great Outd ...
'' {{disambiguation ...
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University Of Pennsylvania Campus
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the designation is reserved for colleges that have a graduate school. The word ''university'' is derived from the Latin ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". The first universities were created in Europe by Catholic Church monks. The University of Bologna (''Università di Bologna''), founded in 1088, is the first university in the sense of: *Being a high degree-awarding institute. *Having independence from the ecclesiastic schools, although conducted by both clergy and non-clergy. *Using the word ''universitas'' (which was coined at its foundation). *Issuing secular and non-secular degrees: grammar, rhetoric, logic, theology, canon law, notarial law.Hunt Janin: "The university ...
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List Of Public Art In Philadelphia
This is a list of public artworks in Philadelphia. The Association for Public Art estimates the city has thousands of public artworks; the Smithsonian lists more than 700. Since 1959 nearly 400 works of public art have been created as part of the city's Percent for Art program, the first such program in the U.S. This list contains only works of public art in outdoor public spaces, and not, for example, works inside museums. Most of the works mentioned are sculptures. Other kinds of art, i.e., sound installations, are marked as such next to their titles. Artworks Center City and Benjamin Franklin Parkway Fairmount Park and Schuylkill River Including Philadelphia Museum of Art, East Fairmount Park, Laurel Hill Cemetery, West Fairmount Park, and Philadelphia Zoo. North and Northeast Phila ...
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William Penn
William Penn ( – ) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy and religious freedom, notable for his good relations and successful treaties with the Lenape Native Americans. In 1681, King Charles II handed over a large piece of his North American land holdings along the North Atlantic Ocean coast to Penn to pay the debts the king had owed to Penn's father, the admiral and politician Sir William Penn. This land included the present-day states of Pennsylvania and Delaware. Penn immediately set sail and took his first step on American soil, sailing up the Delaware Bay and Delaware River, past earlier Swedish and Dutch riverfront colonies, in New Castle (now in Delaware) in 1682. On this occasion, the colonists pledged allegiance to Penn as their new proprietor, and the first Pennsylvania General A ...
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Schuylkill River
The Schuylkill River ( , ) is a river running northwest to southeast in eastern Pennsylvania. The river was improved by navigations into the Schuylkill Canal, and several of its tributaries drain major parts of Pennsylvania's Coal Region. It flows for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 from Pottsville to Philadelphia, where it joins the Delaware River as one of its largest tributaries. In 1682, William Penn chose the left bank of the confluence upon which he founded the planned city of Philadelphia on lands purchased from the native Delaware nation. It is a designated Pennsylvania Scenic River, and its whole length was once part of the Delaware people's southern territories. The river's watershed of about lies entirely within the state of Pennsylvania, the upper portions in the Ridge-and-valley Appalachian Mountains where the folding of the mountain ridges metamorphically modified bit ...
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Penn Live
''The Patriot-News'' is the largest newspaper serving the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area. In 2005, the newspaper was ranked in the top 100 in daily and Sunday circulation in the United States. It has been owned by Advance Publications since 1947. On August 28, 2012, the newspaper's publisher announced that it would shift to a three-day print publication schedule beginning January 1, 2013, and expand its digital focus on its website, PennLive.com, and social media platforms. This followed similar moves at other Advance Publications-owned publications. It is published Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Also, as of May 4, 2015, ''LNP'', a seven-day newspaper based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, is printed in the same facility as ''The Patriot-News''. History ''The Patriot-News'' officially traces its history to March 4, 1854, with the founding of ''The Daily Patriot''. Its heritage dates, however, to December 1820, involving a weekly newspaper named ''The Pennsylvania In ...
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Locust Walk
Locusts (derived from the Vulgar Latin ''locusta'', meaning grasshopper) are various species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae that have a swarming phase. These insects are usually solitary, but under certain circumstances they become more abundant and change their behaviour and habits, becoming gregarious. No taxonomic distinction is made between locust and grasshopper species; the basis for the definition is whether a species forms swarms under intermittently suitable conditions; this has evolved independently in multiple lineages, comprising at least 18 genera in 5 different acridid subfamilies. Normally, these grasshoppers are innocuous, their numbers are low, and they do not pose a major economic threat to agriculture. However, under suitable conditions of drought followed by rapid vegetation growth, serotonin in their brains triggers dramatic changes: they start to breed abundantly, becoming gregarious and nomadic (loosely described as migratory) wh ...
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That '90s Show (The Simpsons)
"That '90s Show" is the eleventh episode of the nineteenth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It first aired on the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network in the United States on January 27, 2008. Kurt Loder and "Weird Al" Yankovic both guest star as themselves, this being the second time for Yankovic. The episode was written by Matt Selman, and directed by Mark Kirkland. The episode's title is a parody of ''That '70s Show'', a television program that also airs on Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox. After Bart Simpson, Bart and Lisa Simpson, Lisa discover Marge Simpson, Marge's degree from Springfield University, Homer Simpson, Homer and Marge recount one of the darkest points of their relationship, in which Marge has an affair with a pretentious history professor and a dejected, self-destructive Homer achieves brief fame as the frontman of a grunge band. The episode significantly retroactive continuity, retcons some of the Simpson family history, depic ...
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