Nathan Manilow was Chicagoland's leading home builder and a developer of the new towns of Park Forest (just after World War II) and subsequently University Park (formerly Park Forest South). His vision for new towns encompassed not only housing, but a 1,000 acre forest preserve, a new commuter terminal, and a great university, to each of which he contributed significantly. After his death in October, 1971, the Village of Park Forest honored him by naming its theatre after him; his son Lewis wanted to honor his father's grand vision in an appropriate way, and so the Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park was born.

LEWIS MANILOW

Lewis Manilow is a trustee of the Art Institute of Chicago, a founding trustee of the Museum of Contemporary Art and its president from 1976 to 1981. He is also honorary president of the Goodman Theatre and the prime mover behind the North Loop Theater District in Chicago. In honor of these efforts a section of Chicago's Loop was named Lewis Manilow Place, and the Chicago Tribune selected him as one of Arts and Entertainment Chicagoans of the Year for 1997. He was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters degree by Governors State University on June 1, 1996. Mr. Manilow has been a senior partner in a large Chicago law firm, chairman of the board of an international telecommunications company, and a real estate developer.

HISTORY OF THE NATHAN MANILOW SCULPTURE PARK

After his father's death, Lewis Manilow assumed leadership of the Park Forest South development company where he established the Park Forest South Cultural Foundation which commissioned works for the sculpture park.

At its inception, the Foundation's sole asset was a sculpture by Mark di Suvero, [5] "For Lady Day," built over a period of two summers (1968-1969) while the artist lived as Manilow's guest at his farm house. The house was later given to Governors State University and is now the site of its Conference Center. Manilow bought this massive sculpture (54"x50'x35') from di Suvero and donated it to the Foundation; it provided the base from which the collection was to grow.

Because of his own interest in the arts, Lewis Manilow developed relationships with the premier artists of the late 1960s and early 1970s. He often brought them to his farm in Park Forest South to create their monumental pieces. Dr. William E. Engbretson, founding president of Governors State University and a progressive, dynamic innovator, became a close friend of Manilow's, sharing his excitement for the emerging new city and for sculpture. Because of the relationship between these two men, and because of Mark di Suvero's presence, the campus became an informal gathering place for Chicago sculptors. Frequent visitors were John Henry, Richard Hunt, John Chamberlain, and Jerry Peart. Both Hunt and Chamberlain were university lecturers in the early days of the developing university.

It was during these earliest days that the university acquired another sculpture, Edvins Strautmanis' [8] "Phoenix," (1968) (16'x24'x18'), which was originally commissioned for a residential complex. On learning that the work's monumental size and abstract design were considered unsuitable, Lewis Manilow advised Bill Engbretson that the piece was available for the cost of transportation. United States Steel supplied a flatbed, and the sculpture was shipped to the GSU campus in 1973.

1976 - "The Sculptor, The Campus, and The Prairie"

In 1976, departing Governors State University President William Engbretson conceived of a monumental sculpture exhibition on the prairie campus. "The Sculptor, The Campus, and The Prairie," held in August that same year, featured sculptures by some of the nation's most exciting artists. Appropriate to the time, these sculptures were created from materials basic to the technological/industrial society and assembled with welding torch, shearing saw, and crane. Engbretson said they expressed a "thoroughly contemporary, exuberant, indomitable, even defiant human spirit." The director of the exhibition was John Payne, GSU's sculptor-in-residence then, as now.

Much to the amazement of the university community, the first two weeks of August, 1976 saw a parade of cranes and flatbeds across the campus. Giant sculptures appeared almost daily. They joined di Suvero's [5] "For Lady Day," Jerry Peart's [10] "Falling Meteor," (1975) (18'x22'x14') and Charles Ginnever's [22] "Icarus" (1975) (6'8"x33'x6'5"); the latter two were acquired by National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) funds using di Suvero's sculpture as GSU's contribution. Richard Hunt's [17] "Outgrown Pyramid" (1974) (12'x5'x8'), which came as a loan, was later purchased by the collector Morris Lipschultz and given to the Sculpture Park.

Edvins Strautmanis' [8] "Phoenix" was sandblasted, repainted and sited. Richard Hunt loaned [12] "Large Planar Hybrid" (1974) (21'x11'x9'), which was purchased in 1983. With Mark di Suvero's permission, "Prairie Chimes" (1968) (45'x55'x35'), which was built during di Suvero's two-summer stay as Lewis Manilow's guest, was sandblasted, painted crimson, and installed on a high grassy knoll across the lake. (di Suvero reclaimed the piece in 1997). Finally, even as the reception marking the opening of the show was getting underway, John Henry was putting the final coat of school-bus yellow paint on his distinctive [2] "Illinois Landscape #5" (commission in 1976) (36x134x24), the fourth acquisition funded by GSU and the National Endowment for the Arts.

"The Sculptor, the Campus, and the Prairie" received immediate critical acclaim. Alan Artner of the Chicago Tribune called it a "virtual model for all public art projects." Franz Schulze of the Chicago Daily News stated, " the Chicago area is presently the locale of one of the most impressive collections of this kind of art that I have ever seen." The Chronicle of Higher Education printed a full-page story on the exhibition.

1977 through 1984

In the early 1970s a group of friends and associates of the recently deceased Nathan Manilow contributed a nearby tract of land to the Governors State University Foundation in his memory. In 1978 that parcel of land was sold for $300,000. At a meeting of the Foundation's Board of Directors Lewis Manilow suggested that the proceeds be restricted to the maintenance and expansion of the sculpture exhibition on campus. With the support of the university's new president, Dr. Leo Goodman-Malamuth, the Foundation Board, and the Illinois Board of Governors (GSU's governing body at the time), the name of the park was changed to "The Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park."

The GSU Foundation then assumed responsibility for maintaining and publicizing the park and for commissioning new works. The exhibition had entered an exciting new phase of development. An advisory committee was appointed to counsel the Foundation on sculpture purchase and maintenance.

After careful study of interest projections, the Board felt that the $300,000, prudently invested, would allow it to spend $45,000 for each of ten years: $40,000 on commissions, $5,000 on maintenance and publicity. To seek its first commission under this program, the Foundation established a special ad hoc selection committee in accordance with NEA guidelines. This committee included Ann Rorimer, assistant curator of contemporary art at the Art Institute of Chicago; Suzanne Ghez, director of the University of Chicago's Renaissance Society; Dr. Curtis McCray, provost of Governors State University; Walter Kelly of Walter Kelly Galleries; Sue Gray, GSU alumna and resident of the southern suburbs; and Dr. William Dodd, chief executive officer of the GSU Foundation.

This committee embarked on a new direction for the park's acquisitions, choosing to commission an environmental sculpture by Mary Miss. A proposal to the NEA resulted in a grant of $40,000 to match the Foundation's outlay for 1981. Miss's [18] "Field Rotation" (3.7 acres) was completed in the summer of that year.

Subsequent acquisitions were Jene Highstein's [9] "Flying Saucer" (1977) (7'x16' diameter); purchased in 1980; and Martin Puryear's [7]"Bodark Arc," (1982) (2.25 acres), a second environmental work. GSU's professor of sculpture John Payne, who had created [13] "Mock 1, V-Form" for the 1976 exhibition, loaned his [15] "Forms in Blue" (1977) (11'x12'x7') and [16] "Mock 2, V-Form" (1976) (3'x19'x17') to the park.

In 1982 ads announcing the installation of works by Mary Miss and Jene Highstein were placed in Art in America and Art Forum.

In May of the same year, the Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park was invited by Art Expo '82 to display at Chicago's Navy Pier. This exhibit resulted in two new works being offered for loan by sculptors Ed McCullough and Terry Karpowicz. Karpowicz's [14]"Art Ark" (1981) (9'x14'x8') was purchased by collector Morris Lipschultz and donated to the park in 1983.

Acquisitions in late 1982-83 completed the stage of the park's development funded by the 1978 land sale. John's Chamberlain's [23] "A Virgin Smile" (1982) (7'5"x6'x6'5"), which had been commissioned earlier by the Park Forest South Cultural Foundation, arrived and was sited in the fall of 1982. It is presently under restoration. An [1]"Untitled" work by Joel Shapiro (1982) (50"x46"x43") was installed in 1992, and Bruce Nauman's [3]"House Divided" (30'x20'x15'6") was built on campus as a permanent installation in August 1983.

Activities 1985 to the Present

Clement Meadmore [21]"Spiral" (1971) (12'6"x10'6") was loaned by the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1985 Dan Yarbrough loaned his [20]"Sysiphus Aviary" (1984) (11'x3'6"x12'). Also that year [5]"For Lady Day" was loaned to the Storm King Art Center in New York for its di Suvero retrospective, and in the fall the Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park hosted its first one-man exhibition, eight sculptures by Canadian artist Jeffrey Rubinoff.

In 1986, Lewis Manilow commissioned a color catalogue of the park's permanent collection with an introduction by Peter Schejdahl, formerly art critic for the New York Times. Lewis Manilow writes in the dedication (to Mark di Suvero) of the park catalogue, "My father would have loved the daring, determination, and success of the combined effort" of the sculptors and university administrators who brought it all together. But is was Mark di Suvero, he said, "who inspired us all to believe in the power of art in a tough landscape." It remains a popular art book and is purchased by many of the park's visitors. Two years later, Vito Acconci's enormous "House of Cars II" arrived from a Chicago gallery as what was to be a two-year loan; although the piece was subsequently sold to a private collector, it remained sited in the park until the loan was terminated in 1998.

In November of 1991 Washington's Hirschhorn Museum loaned a di Suvero titled [4]"ISIS" (1977) (42'x50'x33'). Lewis Manilow donated the cost to ship the piece to University Park. Its name, the acronym for the Institute of Scrap Iron and Steel (now known as the Institute for Scrap Recycling Industries) which originally commissioned it, is also the name of the great Egyptian goddess.

[19]"Throne (for Martin Luther King, Jr.)" (1992) (7'x18'x9') is a steel and wood construction by Ted Garner, a former student of Peart's and di Suvero's. Garner loaned the piece to the park shortly after completing it, reclaimed it for an exhibition in the east, and in March of 1998 returned it to its original site.

The final acquisition of the 20th century is a 14-ton steel maze [11] "Passage" by Chicagoan James Brenner. A series of 10-foot tall interlocking half-circles, the work forms two hallways and an interior space, inviting the viewer to enter and interact with the structure. Originally designed for and placed on Navy Pier for Chicago's Pier Walk '98, the sculpture was donated to the GSU Foundation by Cozzi Metal and Iron which supplied the steel to the sculptor. It was trucked and installed on campus in May 1999, and is now part of the park's permanent collection.

Surely, Nathan Manilow would have been proud of this collection of sculpture which his son Lewis selected for the park he dedicated to his father. It is a fitting tribute to a beloved parent whose vision and effort played such a strong role in shaping Chicago's Southland. It is a treasure on the campus of Governors State University, a renowned cultural attraction which draws countless visitors from near and far.