On March 13, 2024, the International Olympic Committee announced that Scripps alum Alison Saar ’78, a critically acclaimed sculptor whose works have been featured at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and the Brooklyn Art Museum, has been chosen to produce a sculpture for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
According to the article posted by the official Olympics site, “The sculpture is an initiative of Olympic Art Visions, through which the IOC invites a renowned visual artist to create an original artwork inspired by sport and the Olympic values, to be presented in a publicly accessible space in the city hosting the Games. […] In the spirit of Paris 2024, [Saar’s] piece will focus on themes of international diversity, equality and the Olympic principle of promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.”
A quote from Saar in the announcement reads, “I am deeply honored to have been selected to create the Olympic sculpture. It is my hope that this work of art, a gift to the people and the city of Paris, will become a gathering space for the public to experience the spirit of friendship and interconnection across cultures and borders.”