Air sculpture by Walker Hancock, PAFA Faculty and Monuments Man, Dedicated at New Home on Schuylkill Banks

Philadelphia restores and installs sculpture, in storage since 1999
 

PHILADELPHIA (April 24, 2015) -- The bronze sculpture Air, created by Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) longtime faculty member and alumnus Walker Hancock (1901-1998), has a new home along a popular Schuylkill River recreation trail.

The restoration of Hancock's sculpture, being formally dedicated at a ceremony April 29, was a project undertaken by the City’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy and was originally commissioned under Philadelphia's Percent for Art program for the former Civic Center Building.

Air, which had been in storage since the Civic Center's demolition in 1999, was restored and outfitted with a new granite pedestal by the OACCE before being installed in its new home on the Schuylkill Banks' Cherry Street outlook.

Hancock also created the colossal Pennsylvania Railroad War Memorial inside Philadelphia's 30th Street Station and was one of the famed World War II "Monuments Men" who inspired a 2009 book by Robert Edsel and and a 2014 film starring and directed by George Clooney.

Hancock attended PAFA from 1921-25, where he studied under prominent sculptor Charles Grafly. As a student, Hancock received the Stewardson Prize (1921); two Cresson Scholarships (1922,1923); the Widener Gold Medal (1925); and the Fellowship Prize (1932). Hancock visited Europe on two PAFA traveling scholarships, and studied at the American Academy in Rome from 1925-28.

He joined the PAFA faculty in 1929, where he served as Director of the Sculpture Department. He remained a faculty member until 1967.

As a specialist officer for the Army Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives in Europe from 1943-45, Hancock was part of the group known as the "Monuments Men." The group of 300 museum directors, curators, artists, art scholars and educators from various nations were tasked by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to locate and protect tens of thousands of artworks and cultural treasures that the Nazi regime had stolen and planned to destroy in Germany. 

Hancock created more than 300 works over the course of his exceptional career, including the Soldiers Memorial in St. Louis; the Inaugural Medal for President Dwight D. Eisenhower; the bust of President George H.W. Bush in the Capitol Rotunda; the Army and Navy Air Medals; the Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal; the U.S. Air Mail Flyers Medal; and statues of President James Madison in the Library of Congress and Gen. Douglas MacArthur at the United States Military Academy at West Point. 

Among Hancock's many honors are the National Medal of Arts (1989) and the National Medal of Freedom (1990). He was also recipient of the Prix de Rome in sculpture from the American Academy (1925); the Helen Foster Barnett Prize of the National Academy of Design (1935); the Philadelphia Art Alliance Medal of Achievement (1953); the J. Sanford Saltus Medal (1953); the Herbert Adams Memorial Award (1954); and the Medal of Honor from the National Sculpture Society (1981).

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ABOUT PAFA
Founded in 1805, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is America's first school of fine arts and museum. A recipient of the 2005 National Medal of Arts, PAFA's world-class collection of American art continues to grow and provides what only a few other art institutions in the world offer: the rare combination of an outstanding museum and an extraordinary faculty known for its commitment to students and for the stature and quality of its artistic work.

ABOUT THE OFFICE OF ARTS, CULTURE AND THE CREATIVE ECONOMY 
The mission of the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy is to support and promote arts, culture and the creative industries; and to develop partnerships and coordinate efforts that weave arts, culture and creativity into the economic and social fabric of the City.