SIU Campus Saluki Alumni Plaza

(Click the photo above for an audio tour)

This new campus landmark is a 19-foot-long sculpture. The artists used an epoxy-based clay to sculpt three dogs approximately 2.5 times larger than life, captured running mid-stride. Medwedeff and studio supervisor Megan Robin-Abbott spent hours with two of the university’s canine mascots, poking, prodding, and measuring them to create lifelike reproductions. The dogs were then cast in bronze at a foundry in Cincinnati, Ohio. The design concept was developed by university alumni. The SIU Alumni Association National Board of Directors in 2018 initiated a major fundraising campaign to support this new landmark space recognizing the university’s recent 150th-anniversary celebration. These three Salukis, fashioned in a running formation, represent the past, present and future students here at Southern Illinois University on the Carbondale campus.