The Latest Piece of Public Art at RIC is a Real Turkey

Gobbling up much of the attention at Wednesday’s Cap and Gown ceremony was the unveiling of the bronze statue of Geráld the Turkey, the 2024 senior class’ parting gift to the RIC campus. The nickname Geráld is assigned to any turkey who has made his/her home on campus.

The statue, which stands about three feet tall and weighs 60 pounds – which is triple the size of an average Thanksgiving turkey – will rest its wings at a permanent spot outside Adams Library facing the Quad. 

Senior Class President Gianna Del Monico (seated left in photo) says she and fellow class officers had contemplated gifting a mural but that wound up having too many moving parts. She credited senior class treasurer William Dempsey with conceiving the idea of a bronze Geráld statue.

“All of us fell in love with that idea,” Del Monico says. “After unveiling the statue at Cap and Gown, the whole audience erupted with cheers. I think it’s a hit!”

The statue, which is composed of weather-proofed patina like that of the Statute of Liberty, costs $5,400 and was purchased at Perigold, a Boston-based designer goods firm.

“We had to do in-depth research to find it in December,” Del Monico recalls. “It’s tough to find a turkey statue.”

After Cap and Gown festivities ended, the Geráld statue was carted away on RIC President Jack Warner’s golf vehicle and paraded through the center of campus. The feathered fowl will be secured outside the library on a forthcoming date.

Del Monico says she and class officers once pondered placing the statue inside the Donovan Dining Center as a tribute to Donovan’s trademark Geráld turkey sandwich.

“Then, we thought better of that and concluded that turkeys are truly outside animals,” she says.