“Primary Compass,” which originally was installed at the former Butler Institute of American Art Trumbull Branch in Howland in 2000, is being reinstalled outside the Butler in Youngstown after being in storage since 2019.

YOUNGSTOWN — “Primary Compass” now points from a new location.

The massive steel-and-glass sculpture, which originally was installed outside the Butler Institute of American Art’s former Trumbull Branch in Howland, now resides between Butler’s Wick Avenue home and Youngstown State University’s Maag Library.

It’s been in storage since 2019, when Foundation Medici, owners of the building that now houses the Medici Museum of Art, severed its relationship with the Butler.

Don Gummer, the artist who created “Primary Compass,” came to the museum to watch the installation process, which required a massive crane to rebuild the work, which stands 22 feet tall and weighs five tons.

Gummer and Louis A. Zona, executive director of the Butler, talked Wednesday morning while the crew worked.

“It’s a wonderful feeling,” Zona said. “I had doubts along the way, thinking it was going to remain in storage forever, but fortunately we were able to resurrect it.”

Before the piece first was installed in 2000, the Connecticut-based artist made about a dozen site visits, sketching ideas while sitting in the parking lot across the street, while determining how the piece would fit in its wide-open environment.

This time it was only a matter of determining which direction it should face situated between the two buildings on a busy campus walkway.

“I like that it’s contained (between the two buildings),” Gummer said. “Before, nothing was around it. It was appealing in another way, but this is appealing in a totally different way. It works within the space. Maybe this is where it always was meant to be.”

Zona added, “It’s an attractive element on the campus of the university and the campus of the Butler Institute because it’s right between the two buildings. The university president, when he saw my images, said, ‘It’s steel and in a steel town. It’s perfect,’ and it really is a perfect addition to our community.

“It’s more intimate here. I love the way it was installed in Howland, but this is a totally different feeling. It’s going to be a central part of the campus, and it will be a place where, especially students can congregate and a class or two might be held beneath the sculpture.”

Gummer, 78, has had dozens of solo exhibitions in his career and his work has been commissioned by other museums, universities, corporations and even the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. This is the first time one of his large sculptures has been moved to a different location after its initial installation.

“I wanted to be here in case they had any questions,” he said. “It has to be level. If I’m not here, it might not be level. I just wanted to keep an eye on it, but it seems they know what they’re doing.”

The new installation should be completed this week, but some of the thick glass panels in the steel broke during takedown and in storage and still will need to be replaced.

“I’m really pleased to see it up again,” Gummer said. “It’s like looking at old photographs of yourself … I like the way it plays with the light.”