Reversed horizontal Spur logo.
Artistic rendering of Patrick Marold and The Bale.

The Bale

Patrick Marold

Location: Terra plaza

This sculpture is made up of around 500 solid steel rods that were shaped around a wooden mold. It references a hay bale while connecting to the themes of the Terra building and the history of the National Western Complex.

Abstract artworks use things like lines, colors, patterns, and light to represent something from the real world, like a hay bale. This means that abstract artworks can look like something different to everyone. Try moving through this sculpture, what does it remind you of?

About the artist

Patrick Marold has been working to bind the physical environment with our perceived orientation for over two decades. Since earning a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 1997, his artistic development has maintained an intimate connection to landscape, extending the environmental traditions unique to post-minimalism.

Refinement of his practice has been pursued in various locations in America and abroad, including opportunities like that of his early Fulbright Fellowship in Iceland where he began to more fully direct his energies to creating works which utilize spatial dynamics to generate an enhanced perception of light and movement.

Exhibiting widely in galleries and museums, he has earned multiple awards and recognition for his studio works as well as his publicly sited projects. In 2007, Marold received international attention for The Windmill Project, a temporary landscape installation in Vail, Colo., which seeded a local valley with a mass of light-generating turbines committed to capturing and visualizing the choreography of the wind through a unique landscape.

In the last decade he has completed numerous public commissions including the 7-acre installation, Shadow Array, at Denver’s International Airport; as well as the sky and sound work, Solar Drones, located in Canada’s National Music Centre. Diversity in setting, scale, and technical realization have equipped him with the skill and interest to apply his vision across a broad range of sites while preserving a unity of vision.

Marold maintains a studio in Colorado, and continues working toward a means of spatial intercession, inviting the viewer to consider specific conditions of landscape and materials, and their impact on our personal and communal perception.

Circular metal sculpture in the shape of a hay bale.
A large metal sculpture shaped like a hay bale hangs from a crane over a flat bed truck.
Construction workers guide a large metal sculpture to the ground from a crane.
Construction workers attach a large metal sculpture shaped like a hay bale to a cement pad.
Construction workers install a large metal sculpture shaped like a hay bale.
Instagram Link

KAREN SCHLATTER

Director, Colorado Water Center

Karen Schlatter was appointed director of the Colorado Water Center at Colorado State University in 2025, after joining the Center as associate director in 2023. Schlatter brings academic, nonprofit, and public sector experience in managing complex water challenges with a deep commitment to building partnerships and the ability to engage in conversations across Colorado’s water community. She joined CSU from the University of Florida Water Institute where her work included facilitating multi-stakeholder/academic teams to achieve shared goals around water management through collaborative, interdisciplinary research. Prior to her role at UF, she served as associate director of the Colorado River Delta Program at the Sonoran Institute, where she focused on building cross-sector and international partnerships to support large-scale ecological restoration, effective binational water management, and community engagement in the Colorado River Delta region. Schlatter earned a Bachelor of Science in biology from McGill University and a Master of Science in environmental studies from the University of Colorado Boulder. She served as an agricultural extension volunteer in the Peace Corps in Paraguay.

Wave art

TOM VILSACK

Chief Executive Officer, World Food Prize Foundation

Effective March 1, 2025, Thomas J. Vilsack, former United States Secretary of Agriculture and Governor of Iowa, will become the first Chief Executive Officer for the World Food Prize Foundation. In this new role, Governor Vilsack will focus on expanding the Foundation’s global network, and will further position the Foundation as a leader in addressing global food and nutrition insecurity, continuing his lifetime of public service.

In 1998, he became the first Democrat to be elected as the Governor of Iowa in more than 30 years. During his two terms as Governor, he created an $800 million, 10-year economic development incentive program—the Iowa Values Fund. His administration worked with schools, medical providers, businesses, faith-based organizations and other entities to expand healthcare coverage to more than 90,000 previously uninsured children.

He became the 30th and 32nd United States Secretary of Agriculture, from 2008-2017 and 2021-2025, respectively. Only five people in U.S. history have served in the Cabinet longer, and during his tenures, the United States Department of Agriculture set records for U.S. agricultural exports and provided food assistance to millions of Americans. He helped expand food and nutrition access through summer feeding programs for children and additional support for fruit and vegetable purchases through the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program. As Secretary, he worked to develop new and superior markets for small and mid-sized farms, allowing those operations to remain viable and in turn, strengthening and growing rural communities.

Governor Vilsack has long been connected to the World Food Prize Foundation, having served on both the Council of Advisors and the Board of Directors. His insights and acumen were vital in shaping our mission and initiatives. His leadership and experience will be instrumental in expanding the Foundation’s international reach and continuing the mission of elevating innovations and inspiring action to sustainably increase the quality, quantity and availability of food for all.

Wave art
CSU Spur is turning 2! Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025.

It’s our anniversary!

It’s our anniversary! CSU Spur has been fully open to the public, sharing hands-on, family-friendly activities around food, water, and health for two years. Join us on Saturday, Jan. 11, for 2nd Saturday activities, including desserts, a mariachi performance, face painters, horses on treadmills, veterinarians in surgery, scientists in labs, and more. The celebration is from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and CSU Spur will be open 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; no registration required, all public activities are free.

2nd Saturday at CSU Spur is presented by Canvas Credit Union.

We’ll see you Saturday!

2nd Saturday at CSU Spur is 10 a.m.-2 p.m. this Saturday (May 9), and this month, the theme is Spur in Bloom. Join us for flower-themed arts and crafts, horse demonstrations, interactive activities focused on topics like sustainability and gardening, the return of the Market at the Center, and more!

Explore 2nd Saturday activities