HANOVER, NH.- A public art favorite will return to Dartmouth’s campus in a new medium later this summer when the Hood Museum of Art installs a bronze version of artist Ursula von Rydingsvard’s sculpture Wide Babelki Bowl (2007). The bronze edition was created from a cast of the original cedar sculpture and will be placed in front of Rollins Chapel on Dartmouth’s campus, where the original sculpture stood.

When it was initially donated to the museum by Jens and Margarit Jacobs in 2019, the sculpture had already spent nearly a decade outside their home in Woodstock, VT. The original Wide Babelki Bowl was crafted from cedar, classified as a softwood. Though it remained visually striking, the sculpture began to show signs of wear by 2023. As a result, Hood Museum staff brought members of von Rydingsvard’s studio to campus to assess the sculpture’s condition and devise a plan for the work to better withstand the elements of a New England winter. The artist herself suggested casting the wooden version in bronze to create a new and far more weatherproof work. Georgina and Thomas Russo, members of the Class of 1977 and longtime supporters of Dartmouth, the Hood Museum, and the arts, offered to support the project.

The museum deaccessioned the wooden sculpture in 2025, and the artist’s studio staff disassembled it, repaired it, and transported it to Urban Art Projects (UAP). Staff at UAP spent the winter and spring of 2026 creating molds from the original and casting the work in bronze. Spring and summer then saw the new artwork assembled and patinated under the supervision of the artist. Almost exactly six years after its original installation, the bronze Wide Babelki Bowl will be installed in the same location in front of Rollins Chapel in August.





“When the Hood Museum received Wide Babelki Bowl, Ursula shared with me that she dreamed of having her cedar sculptures cast in bronze,” says John Stomberg, Virginia Rice Kelsey 1961s Director. “She wanted a lasting legacy. When the Hood Museum put together a plan to do just that, with funding from Tom and Gina Russo, we all visited her at the studio. She was immensely happy to see the cast come to fruition. We shared an unforgettable and emotional moment of joy—her for seeing the sculpture created in bronze and us for seeing her fulfillment. Accomplishing Ursula’s vision for Wide Babelki Bowl has been the perfect capstone to my career working in art museums.”