Disabled Veterans Memorial

Disabled Veterans Memorial

Historical - Memorials/Tributes - Outdoor Sculpture

 227 W Michigan Ave., Kalamazoo, MI, 49007

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Installed on June 14, 1985
Owner: Kalamazoo County
Location: Kalamazoo County 8th District Court, facing Bronson Park

About the Artist: Kirk Newman was born in Dallas, Texas in 1926 and began his artistic career experimenting with abstract sculpture and painting in the exciting post-World War II era. What increasingly intrigued him, however, was the human figure and how it could speak to the complexities of the modern world.
While widely recognized as a sculptor, Newman was also a dedicated educator. He came to Kalamazoo in 1949 as part of the University of Michigan’s extension program. Newman believed community art programs could be as stimulating and rewarding as those offered at the college level. He recruited a dedicated group of teachers to help develop the Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts art school.

About the Sculpture:  There are four rectilinear columns about 6.5 feet tall topped by a portrait of a military man from the Navy, Marines, Army and Air Force, respectively.The portraits are each between 18 and 24 inches in height. There is a taller fifth column behind these four that includes an eagle at the top and a plaque that gives information about the reason for the installation.

Information was retrieved by the artist’s personal website: http://www.kirknewman.com/theartist.html

Photograph by Patrick Jouppi, 2011
Slideshow images by Jade Wethy, 2013

Location Info

227 W Michigan Ave.

227 W Michigan Ave., Kalamazoo, MI, 49007