IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - University of Iowa police are investigating and a reward is being offered for an arrest after a Herky statue was vandalized on the school’s campus.
Someone shattered the legs of the fiberglass “Reflections of U” Herky on Friday, the Iowa City Press-Citizen reported (https://icp-c.com/RA17GP ), leaving only steel rebar attaching the statue to its 1-ton concrete base on the north end of the school’s Pentacrest.
Herky, the hawk, is the mascot of the Iowa Hawkeyes. About 30 variations of the fiberglass statues were displayed in 2004 as part of the Herky on Parade public art project, which helped celebrate Kinnick Stadium’s 75th anniversary.
Iowa City Area Crime Stoppers is offering up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest in the vandalism.
Cedar Rapids artist Kim O’Meara, who created the Herky more than a decade ago, is evaluation its condition to see if it can be repaired.
It’s not the first time her creation has been vandalized. In 2004, vandals tore the first “Reflections of U” Herky off its cement slab and tossed it onto the street. It was one of two Herky statues vandalized that day.
“It’s really sad,” O’Meara said. “It’s like an act against the community, in a way.”
O’Meara spent 120 hours over three weeks creating the Herky, which was a mosaic of tiny pieces of black glass. She first used an adhesive to secure each shard of glass to the fiberglass base, then applied grout.
A similar method was used on her first “Reflections of U” Herky, which O’Meara repaired, but she feels she was never able to recapture the essence of the original piece.
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Information from: Iowa City Press-Citizen, https://www.press-citizen.com/
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