A 5-ton steel sculpture tracking summer solstice is caught in Trump budget-cut limbo

KOCHVILLE TOWNSHIP, MI — Museum officials aren’t sure yet how — or if — the sun could set on a five-ton piece of artwork housed at Saginaw Valley State University for a quarter-century.

During the summer solstice of 2000 — on June 20, or 25 years ago today — a dedication ceremony at the Saginaw County-based university highlighted the arrival of the “Annual Ring.” Through a circular opening at the top of its half-globe shape, “Annual Ring” focuses the sunlight toward the precise center of the ground at the base of the steel sculpture during solar noon each summer solstice.

The late Nancy Holt, an internationally recognized sculptor, created the piece in 1981 for the Federal Building in downtown Saginaw. When officials razed that facility on South Warren in 1999, officials scrambled to find a new site to house the sculpture before landing it at nearby SVSU the following year.

Since then, the sculpture — made with 1-inch rolled steel — has stood alongside a pond near College Drive East and Davis in the northeast corner of the Kochville Township-based campus.

But, for the piece’s caretakers at the SVSU-housed Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum, concerns about the “Annual Ring” were recently renewed.

Why? Since 2000, the sculpture has remained on loan to the museum from the U.S. General Services Administration (or GSA), a federal agency that oversees government real estate and properties. The “Annual Ring” fell under the organization’s umbrella because of its original home at the since-demolished Saginaw Federal Building.

When President Donald Trump returned to the White House earlier this year, the GSA was among the federal agencies he targeted during a budget-cutting overhaul of government services. With the assistance of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, Trump’s administration eliminated key members of the agency’s staff, The Associated Press reported.

“This has caused some concern regarding artworks on loan from the GSA,” Gretchen Linzner, the collections and exhibitions manager at the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum, said in a statement.

Linzner said, for the moment, “Annual Ring” remains safely under the museum’s watch.

“As of right now, nothing has changed for the Holt sculpture on campus,” she said. “We don’t anticipate any action being taken to remove the sculpture in the near future.”

The terms of its lease from the GSA include forbidding museum staff from altering, repairing or cleaning the sculpture without written permission from the federal agency, Linzner said. Seeking such permission could prove more challenging since the Trump administration’s staff cuts at the agency.

Linzner said the museum staff remain committed to monitoring the sculpture’s condition and mowing the grass surrounding it.

Her concerns about the GSA-impacted artwork extends to pieces not housed at the campus.

Along with cutting GSA staff, Trump’s overhaul of the agency included putting up for sale some of the government real estate properties the organization manages. And some of those buildings house artwork by the late Marshall Fredericks, the namesake for the museum at SVSU.

One of the most prominent government-housed Fredericks pieces is “American Eagle,” a 21-foot aluminum sculpture located at Cincinnati-based John Weld Peck Federal Building. The facility was identified for potential sale as part of the Trump administration’s overhaul.

“It’s tough to say how many pieces by Fredericks could be affected as he has so many works in public spaces across the country,” Linzner said. “As of right now, ‘American Eagle’ is most at risk because the building where it’s installed is up for sale.”

She said media reports, including from The New York Times, have indicated sculptures impacted by such real estate sales could be moved elsewhere, stored by the GSA, or provided new loan terms that could adjust caretakers’ ability to manage the artwork.

“The biggest concern is that artworks could slip through the cracks and not receive appropriate care and conservation,” Linzner said.

She said Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum officials could act to preserve the artist’s works at those impacted facilities.

“As stewards of this legacy, we are committed to the conservation and preservation of Fredericks’s works and to expanding the public art landscape for future generations,” she said. “The museum will be happy to participate in any conversations to ensure the continued safety of Fredericks’s iconic works.”

Linzner said none of Fredericks’s sculptures at her museum are tied to GSA oversight. Holt’s “Annual Ring” is the lone piece on SVSU’s campus with that distinction.