Foundation Provided Lead Gift for Welding Lab
A standing-room-only crowd from the community, campus and area high schools welcomed Barton’s new welding lab January 28, 2016 for a Great Bend Chamber of Commerce Coffee and Ribbon Cutting. College President Dr. Carl Heilman welcomed the crowd of about 200. He noted that financial, consulting and equipment support from Murphy Family Enterprises, Inc., the Great Bend office of AirGas, Inc., and Scott’s Welding were crucial to creation of the state-of-the art lab. Heilman said that community business leaders asked for a welding program several years ago. The result is a full first class of 23 students. After just one semester, students will receive a nationally recognized certificate making them instantly employable, he noted.
The Foundation exists to support the college and to prudently manage gifts from the community for the benefit of the college and students. Ultimately these gifts improve the economic and cultural vitality of the region. The Foundation is proud to help with this important initiative.
Foundation Presents McKown-Funded “Winged Aspiration” to College
More than 50 individuals attended the October 13 unveiling of “Winged Aspiration,” a dramatic outdoor sculpture in the circle driveway fronting Barton’s Fine Arts Building and the Shafer Gallery. Bill McKown was a true friend of the arts at Barton Community College. He died in March 2014, but his legacy lives on through numerous art-related improvements, including “Winged Aspiration”, made on the Barton campus as a result of a generous bequest from his estate. Other campus projects provided by the Bill J. McKown Memorial Fund include the educational kiosk in the gallery on how to build a bronze horse, equipment for the ceramics department, and furnishings and computers for the art department. “Winged Aspiration” is a large reproduction of a smaller wax mold created by Gus Shafer for a sculpture that was never cast. In the late 1970s, L. E. “Gus” Shafer produced a series of images in wood and wax as models for a monument to hope and the future. Different from his western art images, these elegant abstract forms pull the eye towards the sky and infinite possibilities. Ellinwood sculptor Aaron McCaffery fabricated the 14-foot tall bronze rendition of Shafer’s piece, weighing 900 pounds. Great Bend sculptor Chet Cale designed the base of limestone blocks. See a 360-degree view of the sculpture and a video of the short ceremony on the Foundation YouTube playlist