Fountain honors founder of Columbia Green
John Stringer Rainey commissions sculptor to create a fountain dedicated to his wife Anne Rainey
By Rachel Haynie

Photo by Rachel Haynie Sculptor Sandy Scott and USC Art Department Chair Phillip Dunn concur on the placement of Scott's creation, Las Palomas, as the centerpiece of a tranquility pocket behind the new Arnold School of Public Health building. Scott's fountain and the $22 million, 100,000-square foot-plus "green design" building form the cornerstone of Innovista, a bold development concept that embraces research, relaxation and recreation, retail, residential, and restaurants. The two artists give the fountain a final look a few hours before it was unveiled in a surprise dedication to Anne Edens Rainey.

Before her fountain creation was unveiled and dedicated, sculptor Sandy Scott was able to see how naturally and artfully water moved across the bronze wings of the doves she had shaped in her Colorado studio. Rain did not keep the internationally renowned wildlife sculptor from seeing her public piece in its now-permanent setting for the first time.

The low Renais-sance piece centers a pocket garden carved out of urban space behind the new Arnold School of Public Health on the University of South Carolina campus. When the roses bloom next season, the entire area will become a bower, said Phillip Dunn, chair of the department of art at USC.

Dunn, whose academic areas of inquiry include landscape photography, has been part of the top-secret project from the beginning. John Stringer Rainey commissioned Scott to create the fountain after admiring her work at Brookgreen Gardens. Rainey's gift was dedicated to his wife, Anne, an outstanding perennial gardener who founded the civic beautification organization Columbia Green. The sign at the edge of the tranquil space tells all who pass that way or stop to reflect: this is Anne's garden.

Of artistic concern to Dunn was how the fountain would be set in its own environment. As a landscape photographer, Dunn is interested in depicting "our natural environment." Around the fountain are tall grasses planted on a hillock to catch moving breezes, and other flora was chosen to create a natural sanctuary.

Both native mid-Westerners, Scott and Dunn shared their enthusiasm for the fountain's inaugural place in a grand artistic scheme for Innovista. Dunn has been heartened that art has been embraced by Innovista planners as integral and essential to the master plan. "If we excluded the arts from Innovista, it would fail." Fortunately, Dunn said, "It wasn't a tough sell."

Dunn said he didn't know another place in the country with a comparable vision for the 500-acre thriving intellectual ecosystem Innovista has been conceived to be. He said in time he envisions art, both faculty and student pieces, creating visual intrigue throughout the Innovista blocks, and in time, foresees the university community infusing art across the center city campus.

Scott was especially pleased to come to Columbia to see the fountain had arrived safely at its home. "I had a time getting out of Wyoming because of early winter weather and finally had to drive eight hours to the Denver airport. I would have walked if I'd had to; I felt it was that important to be here, as a courtesy."

Scott, who hunted and fished with her father as a young girl growing up in Iowa, is true to nature; she sculpts what she knows. She called the installation of Las Palomas, or white doves, "a dream come true, especially because it is in a public place. Many of my sculptures are commissioned for private residences. Artists like for the public to see and be able to respond to their work."