Ringling College of Art and Design President Larry Thompson on Tuesday announced senior Irene Garibay and junior Celia Garcia Nogales as the winners of the Mitzner Markle Women’s Sculpture Scholarship, awarding the pair a $15,000 scholarship and selecting their sculptural design to grace the main entrance of the incoming Ringling College Library. Garibay and Nogales will now have a $25,000 budget and until the coming fall to make their artistic proposal a reality.

Simple yet elegant in its design, the proposed sculpture will be roughly 11 feet tall and 8 feet across at its broadest dimensions, comprising a pair of massive and rustic-looking timber logs, oiled and sanded, standing upright and side-by-side. A sliver of light peaks between the beams, splitting the image and lending the whole affair an almost book-like appearance. Fitting for a library. “We were interested in books as the source of knowledge, and then to honor the source of books,” said Garibay, also a Ringling 2015-16 Trustee Scholar. Working with local artisan Dale Rieke of Wood Street Studio, the students hope to utilize Australian Pine, an invasive species now ubiquitous, to reflect the local, changing environment. “A lot of layers came together to form this simple piece,” said Nogales.

Created and funded by artist and technologist Nancy Markle, in partnership with the Gulf Coast Community Foundation, the scholarship competition invited Ringling students to create their own proposals for a piece of sculptural art to adorn the new building, complete with not only renderings and designs, but concept statements, proposed materials, a proposed budget and portfolio of previous work – everything a professional artist would need to enter a bid. “We wanted it to be a real-world experience,” said Thompson. Opening in the fall, the new $18-million, 46,000 square-foot library will open onto a collaborative first-floor area affectionately dubbed “The Creative Cauldron,” by Thompson, saying to Nogales and Garibay, “the two of you working together to make this happen, I think, is a great example.”

Complete with an endowment begun by Markle and devoted to the maintenance and upkeep requisite with any massive piece of outdoor public art, “this gift really does last forever,” said Veronica Brady, senior vice president for philanthropy at Gulf Coast.