Created By: University of Wyoming
The University Family sculpture, created by the world-famous sculptor and former university professor Robert Russin in 1983, is meant to represent the unity and familial values he felt from his own family as well as from the Laramie community. That mesage has particular impact due to the site's prominent location in the University of Wyoming's Prexy's Pasture, common meeting location for students, faculty, and staff.
This sculpture has become as much a part of Prexy's as it has to the university itself, but is also has been criticized due to its depiction of what most people interpret as its argument for a more limited view of the "Nuclear Family." This interpretation, paired with its name, makes many believe that it is now an outdated emblem of what a true "University Family" should be. As a site of public memory, the scuplture's location is key, as thousands pass by it on a daily basis. During warmer months, people can be found laying on the grass to study or relax, and student organizations often hold activities in this same highly trafficked space. Therefore, "The University Family"'s presence becomes enmeshed in the fabric of the university's identity through these daily, remembered interactions--what becomes our nostalgia for university life.
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Contributed by Eric Leister
This point of interest is part of the tour: Public Memory: Laramie & the University of Wyoming
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