Wayne State College is receiving a new piece of public art in the Neihardt roundabout. The statue, titled “About Face,” is expected to be done by the end of October.

“Anytime there’s money set aside for a public project, one percent of the total budget is put towards some kind of public art work and that’s where the money comes from for these commissions,” Associate Professor Andy Haslit said. “WSC had to go through its own process to get the funding for “About Face.”

“On our end, we form a committee once there’s a project with one percent,” Haslit said. “A group of people like me and a few other people on campus, we’ll kind of accept a bunch of submissions, artists will kind of turn in project ideas or drawings or mock ups.”

“We work with the Nebraska Arts Council to kind of narrow that field down, and then we vote on who to interview and then we interview three finalists and as a committee we select the work of art.”

Since there are numerous steps in the process through different boards and committees, it has taken many dedicated people to get this project started.

“Right now, they’ve been getting the roundabout prepared and pouring the cement that will be the foundation for it and then they’ll bring the sculpture itself and the silhouette on site,” said Jay Collier, director of college relations.

The sculpture contains silhouettes of different people. The copies of the silhouettes had to be sent off to be made for the sculpture.

“It’s all been designed,” Haslit said. “[The] artist sends the designs to fabricators and they laser cut everything; it’s just going to be shipped here and planted.”

“About Face” is a little piece of culture that adds a charming touch to the campus of Wayne State College.