Be Still and Know 32-ft steel sculpture (Lacks Park)

A 32-foot steel sculpture beside Grand Rapids’ Blue Bridge was conceived, according to Grand Valley State University, as a figure looking up. Be Still and Know IV, by Michigan artist John Merigian, was made for ArtPrize 2011, the international art competition held in Grand Rapids since 2009. The university hosted it that year in an exhibition of 31 outdoor works on its downtown campus and listed it as 3D, welded corten steel.

The university quoted Merigian’s aim for the year as a site-specific sculpture, 32 feet tall, “of a figure looking up, reaching out very slightly, and in stillness presents us with hope.” He had also taken part in ArtPrize 2010. The title carries a number: the University of Michigan’s Stamps school, whose alumnus Merigian is, called the work Be Still and Know IV when it reported in May 2012 that it had been permanently installed in Lacks Park, with Robert Darvas Engineering and Pioneer Construction among the sponsors. Downtown Grand Rapids lists it as Be Still and Known IV.