The Art on Campus program is a percent-for-art program at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum of Washington University, and a growing collection of public artworks by nationally and internationally recognized artists. Arbolope Studio has been engaged by the University over a number of years to provide landscape design and siting design for the installation of public artworks for this program, culminating most recently with the installation of Chakaia Booker’s Shaved Portions in the summer of 2022. Additional artists include Ayse Erkmen, Inigo Mañglano-Ovalle, and Dan Graham.

Collaborating with the curatorial team and artists, Arbolope has carefully considered the formal qualities of each artwork, placing the campus and sculptures in dialogue with one another through their site design. Taken together, all 4 collaborations between WUSTL, the artists, and Arbolope prove the value of promoting the generative intersection of art, education, and design.

Bisected Circle was installed within the Museum’s new Sculpture Garden, part of the East End Transformation of the campus, for which Arbolope was also part of the design team. Working in collaboration with other members of the larger design team, Dan Graham’s studio staff,  the Museum’s curatorial team, and Arbolope sited the artwork within the arrival experience to the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Art.

Using permeable pavers and aluminum edging, Arbolope brought the material language of the recently completed East End into the site design of the sculpture, tying it's vernacularinto the surrounding landscape and managing stormwater while complementing the circular nature of the sculpture. An exercise in restraint, the site design cedes visual effect to the sculpture itself, and elegantly blends into the campus ground plane.