So Inclined,  the enchanting, community-created, sculptural project by artist Patrick Dougherty, has graced the front lawn of the Mahaney Center for the Arts for the past four years. This fall, Dougherty returns to Middlebury to give a public lecture marking the farewell to the temporary artwork. The lecture takes place on Friday, October 28, 2011, at 4:30 p.m., in the Mahaney Center for the Arts, Room 221. It’s free and open to the public.

We welcome visitors to bid farewell to So Inclined by posting their memories or photos here.

Dougherty’s site-specific sculpture at Middlebury was constructed in three weeks of September 2007. It represents the collaboration of more than two-hundred and thirty volunteers, from elementary school children to college studio artists and adult community members from Addison County and beyond. To create the sculpture, silver maple and grey dogwood saplings were harvested from nearby Weybridge, Vermont. Like all of Dougherty’s projects, So Inclined was understood to be a temporary structure from its inception. Once dismantled, the sculpture materials will be recycled into compost, and returned to the earth as a supplement for campus plantings. The survival of the installation through four Vermont winters and summers—through ice and snow storms, tropical rains, and dry spells—has heightened its landmark status on the campus. So Inclined has embraced many visitors, as an attraction for the community that produced it, as well as for families and tourists casually passing by the building.