Mission:
The mission of the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum is to celebrate the artistic legacy of Marshall M. Fredericks through collecting, preserving, presenting, and interpreting his life’s work for the educational and cultural enrichment of Saginaw Valley State University and the broadest possible audience. Through the Marshall Fredericks objects collection and archives, temporary exhibitions, publications, and education programs, the Museum contributes to scholarly discourse and serves diverse audiences.
History:
Honey (Dorothy) Doan Arbury studied under Marshall Fredericks when she attended Kingswood School at the Cranbrook Educational Community in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, in the 1930s. Fredericks and Arbury reconnected in the 1970s through her uncle, Alden B. Dow, a prominent architect in Midland, Michigan, with whom Fredericks worked on architectural sculpture projects. Mrs. Arbury served on the founding Board of Control of Saginaw Valley College, which later became Saginaw Valley State University (SVSU). She remained active on the Board of Control and the SVSU Foundation for more than three decades. She and her husband Ned became friends with Marshall and his wife Rosalind, and together they created a plan for a permanent exhibit of Fredericks’s work in a large gallery adjacent to the University’s Arbury Fine Arts Center, which is dedicated to the visual and performing arts.
The Arbury Fine Arts Center and the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Gallery opened to the public in May 1988. Fredericks himself oversaw the permanent installation of more than 200 plaster and bronze models in the gallery. Through the years, private donors have made it possible for more than a dozen bronze casts to be made for the Jo Anne and Donald Petersen Sculpture Garden. Fredericks gave the balance of his collection to SVSU in 1994.
About Us:
The Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum features a unique collection of more than two thousand works that span the 70-year career of Detroit-based public sculptor Marshall M. Fredericks (1908-1998). He is known nationally and internationally for his impressive monumental figurative sculpture, public memorials, fountains, portraits, and medals.
