What is the Cost of Raising a Child?

Artist / Maker Carolyn Brown Braaksma ((American, b. 1951))

Artist / Maker Brad Kaspari (American, b. 1955)

Date2003

MediumBrass, Bronze, and Terrazzo

Dimensions1344 x 240 in. (3413.8 x 609.6 cm)

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LineArt in State Buildings Project for 4-H and Extension Building. In the Art on Campus Collection, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, IA

Object numberU2003.64

Status

On view

Collections

Label TextArtists' interpretation: The innocent question asked of an extension officer – what is the cost of raising a child? – reveals the challenge to educate and share life with a child can not be calculated by dollars alone. The path of a child’s life leads to the HEAD, HEART, HANDS, and HEALTH of 4-H, and illustrates a vital connection to Extension resources. What is the Cost of Raising a Child? is composed of brass insets and the terrazzo flooring seen in the "WOW" (Why Opportunity Works) Center. Terrazzo is a polished flooring of small colorful marble chips in concrete inlaid between a matrix of brass strips. The terrazzo floors were designed in conjunction with Minnesota artist Brad Kaspari. Extension 4-H Youth Building What is the Cost of Raising a Child? Carolyn Braaksma and Brad Kaspari What is the Cost of Raising a Child? was funded by the Iowa Art in State Buildings Program. Detail of What is the Cost of Raising a Child? Carolyn Braaksma (American, b. 1951) received her B.A., magna cum laude, at Metropolitan State College, Denver, CO, in 1980 and did her graduate work in Studio Art at University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, from 1987 to 1989. Her public works of art include Aesop Says, University of Minnesota Veterinary Diagnostic Lab, Saint Paul, Minnesota; The Path Most Traveled..., eight miles of surface treatment on bridges, piers, and sound abatement walls, Scottsdale, Arizona; and at Iowa State. University Wild Goose Chase, Maple Hall and King Harvest, Frederiksen Court Community Center.

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