5 massive steel pieces anchor new Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art sculpture garden

A sculpture garden has replaced a little brick rental house that stood on a corner of the grounds of the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art at Ligonier Valley.

The first additions to the garden are five massive, geometrical steel pieces that were created by the late artist Josefa Filkosky, who was a member of the Seton Hill University art faculty from 1959 until her death in 1999, and also department chair beginning in 1978.

According to the Seton Hill website, Filkosky was a “pioneer in minimalist art ... known for her use of steel beams and tubing to create beautiful, sleek three-dimensional forms that won her international and national recognition.”

“The pieces have yet to be painted,” says SAMA site coordinator Kristin Miller. “She had very specific colors picked out for them: orange, yellow, red. They'll be very bold.”

Students in the Carnegie Mellon University studio architecture and their professor, John Folan, assisted with the garden, Miller said, by making a foam mock-ups of the pieces to decide how they should be placed.

The garden, formally known as the Donald M. Robinson Sculpture Park, is a work in progress, Miller says, with pieces to be added as they are acquired or donated.

The late Robinson was a photographer and Altoona native whose work took him from the Western Pennsylvania woodlands to the far reaches of the world. The Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art is the chief repository of his work.

The Filkosky works join two others on the museum grounds, “Noah's Ark,” a cast aluminum piece by Don Drumm, and “Cattails,” cement over metal by John A. Mayer, along with “River Woman,” a bronze relief by Glenna Goodacre that is attached to the museum's outer wall.

Shirley McMarlin is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 724-836-5750, smcmarlin@tribweb.com or via Twitter @shirley_trib.