FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 1996
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
LOUISA HEINRICH
312.563.0495

TREE-PLANTING SUPPLANTED BY FERRARI SCULPTURE

Chicago, IL -- On Sunday, August 25, 1996, a thing of beauty will be given to the City of Chicago in memory of the 1968 anti-war protesters. Michael Butler, whose initial gift was to have been a weeping willow to be planted in Grant Park, will donate a scale model of Virginio Ferrari's sculpture, Ara Pacis (Place of Peace), the full-size version of which will be erected at an as-yet- undetermined site in Chicago once funding is found.

Ara Pacis will be unveiled and presented by Senator Tom Hayden (D.-Cal) at 2:30 on Sunday afternoon as part of his event, "Return to Chicago 1968/1996", which is in turn a part of his and Butler's joint effort, "A Day of Healing". The plaque which accompanies the sculpture will read, "In memory of those who came to Chicago in 1968 to protest the war. May all the wounds be healed."

Virginio Ferrari works and resides in Chicago, as do several of his pieces, including "Being Born" in Gateway Park, which is the first sight for visitors entering Chicago via the Kennedy expressway. Since 1963, Ferrari has been creating sculptures which interact with their environment and their audience, to give the modern city a "human dimension".