Thank you for supporting the Maxine and Don Schwartz Foundry and the Sculpture program at the University of Northern Colorado

Eastern Colorado natives Maxine and Don Schwartz shared a passion for sculpture. Together, they built a successful business where Maxine would create clay art pieces that Don would cast into bronze in the foundry they built and ran for 25 years in north Greeley. The couple was dedicated to their community and were frequently commissioned to create pieces for memorials. Local examples of these pieces include two bronze sculptures at Bittersweet Park Veterans Memorial in Greeley, the Benajmin Eaton statue in Eaton, and a bronze sculpture of the first Hispanic-American and Coloradoan awarded the Medal of Honor in World War II, Army Pvt. Joseph P. Martinez at the Veteran’s Memorial in Liberty Park, located in Ault. 

Maxine and Don’s children chose to honor the couple’s memory by establishing the Maxine and Don Schwartz Foundry and Sculpture Program Fund at UNC. The fund supports the foundry and the sculpture program in the College of Performing and Visual Arts School of Art and Design. Thanks to their generosity, the UNC Foundry is now proudly named the Maxine and Don Schwartz Foundry in recognition of this gift and to honor the lives and many contributions of Maxine and Don. Their family hopes their contribution will inspire others to learn the art of bronze sculpting.

The family is encouraging other sculpture lovers and UNC alumni to support this initiative by making a gift to this new fund. They are offering a dollar-for-dollar match for every gift to the sculpture program, up to $50,000.