James Peniston is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 sculptor whose monumental bronze

Bronze

Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...

 works include Gregor Mendel (1998) and Keys To Community (2007).

Life

Peniston worked on the 2004 National World War II Memorial

National World War II Memorial

The U.S. National World War II Memorial is a National Memorial dedicated to Americans who served in the armed forces and as civilians during World War II...

 in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, for which he helped design the stainless-steel armature that holds up the bronze eagles and wreaths under the Atlantic and Pacific arches.

Peniston is also a cofounder and arts director of Studio 34: Yoga | Healing | Arts, a yoga and creative arts center in West Philadelphia

West Philadelphia

West Philadelphia, nicknamed West Philly, is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Though there is no official definition of its boundaries, it is generally considered to reach from the western shore of the Schuylkill River, to City Line Avenue to the northwest, Cobbs Creek to the southwest, and...

, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

.

Works

Keys, a nine-foot bronze bust

Bust (sculpture)

A bust is a sculpted or cast representation of the upper part of the human figure, depicting a person's head and neck, as well as a variable portion of the chest and shoulders. The piece is normally supported by a plinth. These forms recreate the likeness of an individual...

 that portrays Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin

Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...

 turning to greet a visitor, sits at the front of Girard Fountain Park

Girard Fountain Park

Girard Fountain Park is a pocket park in the Old City neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at 325 Arch Street. It is open to the public during daylight hours and is maintained by the Philadelphia Fire Department....

 in the Old City neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

. The sculpture was commissioned in 2003 by the city's arts agency and was unveiled and dedicated on Oct. 5, 2007. It replaced Penny Franklin, an acrylic sculpture by Reginald E. Beauchamp

Reginald E. Beauchamp

Reginald E. Beauchamp was an American sculptor whose works include Penny Franklin , Whispering Bells of Freedom , and a bust of Connie Mack that sits in the Baseball Hall of Fame....

 that was covered with 80,000 pennies collected from local schoolchilden, and which had deteriorated and been removed. Peniston won the commission with a proposal that echoed the spirit of the older work. Over two years, the sculptor visited two dozen Philadelphia elementary schools, where he talked about Franklin's activities as a community-builder. He also asked the students to bring in a spare key to be worked into the sculpture, and ultimately collected more than 1,000 keys. "The keys, worked into the statue's surface, are meant to represent the role of community organizers, donors and volunteers in making projects around the city possible," wrote one local newspaper. Even more students became involved through a penny drive mounted by the Philadelphia Fire Department

Philadelphia Fire Department

The Philadelphia Fire Department provides firefighting and Emergency Medical Services within the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....

, which collected some 1.8 million pennies in 500 local schools to help fund the casting. The firefighters also added their own touch to the sculpture: When the molten bronze was poured for the work, they cast in brass nameplates representing fallen colleagues from four centuries of service.

Mendel, a seven-foot bronze statue that portrays pioneering geneticist Gregor Mendel

Gregor Mendel

Gregor Johann Mendel was an Austrian scientist and Augustinian friar who gained posthumous fame as the founder of the new science of genetics. Mendel demonstrated that the inheritance of certain traits in pea plants follows particular patterns, now referred to as the laws of Mendelian inheritance...

 holding a pea

Pea

A pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the pod fruit Pisum sativum. Each pod contains several peas. Peapods are botanically a fruit, since they contain seeds developed from the ovary of a flower. However, peas are considered to be a vegetable in cooking...

pod, was commissioned by Villanova University

Villanova University

Villanova University is a private university located in Radnor Township, a suburb northwest of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States...

, installed in 1998, and stands in the courtyard at the front of the university's Mendel Science Center.

External links

("Keys To Community")

• Artist's own site: James Peniston Sculpture
• Peniston's entry at Philadelphia Public Art@philart.net.
• Photos of the installation of Keys To Community, October 3, 2007, Flickr.com.
• Short documentary video of the making of Keys to Community (rough cut)
• Photo of Mendel sculpture on Villanova's web site.
• "Artist Spotlight: James Peniston", Uwishunu, October 3, 2007