The city of Jackson, Michigan, has put its Save Outdoor Sculpture (SOS!) Assessment Award to good use by compiling an inventory of the city’s outdoor sculpture. Author and art historian Michael Panhorst and professional conservator Virginia Norton Naudé worked on an SOS! Community Campus pilot, hosted by the Ella Sharp Museum, and put together a Web site explaining the significance of Jackson’s sculpture, treatment requirements, and the benefits of proper maintenance.

The city boasts works by nationally regarded sculptors Lorado Taft, Frederick Hibbard, and Louise Nevelson. As Mr. Panhorst says in his introduction, "The people of Jackson should be very proud of this collection. Not every city this size has such fine examples of twentieth-century American art on permanent public display. Most of Jackson’s sculptures rank in the upper echelon of the 900 sculptures inventoried in Michigan in the early 1990s as part of SOS!"

To explore Jackson’s sculpture, visit www.ellasharp.org/pages/SOS1.html.

To see what’s in your town, try the Smithsonian Institution’s Art Inventories at http://www.siris.si.edu/webpac-bin/wgbroker?new+-access+top. Or check out the SOS! Web site at www.heritagepreservation.org/programs/sos/sosmain.htm.