Invitation to Dance by Kent Ullberg

The sculpture of a Whooping Crane by Kent Ullberg was unveiled in May 2018 in honor of George Archibald, PhD ’77. Archibald is the co-founder of the International Crane Foundation and winner of the Cornell Lab’s Arthur A. Allen Award, which recognizes significant contributions to ornithology. He dedicated his life to the conservation of the world's cranes. Archibald and the crane foundation pioneered techniques in captive management and reintroduction of crane species, including the use of crane costumes, puppets, and courtship dance performances to induce successful reproduction in captive cranes.

A native of Sweden, the sculplture's artist, Kent Ullberg, is an internationally recoginzed sculptor. He studied at the Swedish University College of Art and has worked at museums in Germany, Netherlands, France, Botswana, and Denver, Colorado. He has made his permantent home in Corpus Cristi, Texas. He creates enormous installations and previous works include a life-size bronze Mastodon placed outside the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.