Hive Mind
Object NameSculpture
Artist / Maker
Beth Lipman
(American, born 1971)
Date2025
MediumCast bronze, blown and cast glass
ClassificationsSculpture
Credit LineCommissioned by University Museums. Funding provided by the Joyce Tomlinson Brewer Fund for Art Acquisition, Carole S. Gee, Beate Schmittmann, and Steve and Audrey Marley. In the Art on Campus Collection, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.
Object numberU2025.2
Status
On viewCollections
CultureAmerican
Label TextHive Mind (2025) is a site-specific outdoor commission created by internationally-recognized artist Beth Lipman. This large-scale sculpture is roughly 3000 lbs. and is located in the green space between Morrill Hall and Beardshear Hall. Lipman's artistic skills in glass are featured in Hive Mind, along with incorporating metal elements into the mass of the sculpture. Lipman designed the installation to represent not only the social history of ISU's campus but also highlights the output of research, invention, and innovation completed at Iowa State University.
The elements of this sculpture allude to the past, present, and future impacts made by Iowa State University, examining how these objects and innovations have played significant roles in world history and the future power of research being done on campus today. The form of a hay bale also represents the layering time, how there is always an interplay between the past and present that will inform the future in a constant cyclical motion. The title Hive Mind alludes to the campus as location of constant innovation, a hive of research and collaborative work to develop ideas that have and will impact the world.
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From the University Museums Collections Handbook, vol. 2, 2025:
Beth Lipman is known for her exquisite and detailed glass tablescapes, still lifes, and her work with several cultural institutions to produce site-specific works of art. As part of its 50th Anniversary, University Museums commissioned Lipman to create a sculpture that represents the years of research and innovation completed at Iowa State, and the ever-accumulating influence these discoveries had or made on the human experience.
The resulting sculpture, Hive Mind, is an eight-foot-tall bronze hay bale, referencing the round hay baler machinery, originally patented by Dr. Wesley “Wes” Buchele (1920–2017), a longtime professor of Agricultural Engineering at Iowa State University. This monumental work of art evokes many examples of innovation at Iowa State, incorporating glass elements of objects that illustrate significant contributions by the Iowa State community. For this commission, Lipman visited several laboratories on campus, spoke with researchers across the University, and worked with Special Collections and University Archives to find primary source objects to inspire the glass objects found within the sculpture.
Sited in the Anderson Sculpture Garden, students and those walking through central campus can view this tribute to innovation at Iowa State.
Locations
- (not entered) Iowa State University, Anderson Sculpture Garden
