On Monday, December 5, stop by and say goodbye to the 13 Shetland sheep that have been part of the two-year-old project called The Virtual Pasture, at the south end of the Oval ouside the Wexner Center. According to Michael Mercil, associate professor in the Department of Art and the force behind the project, the entire flock will be grazing on site from 10 am to 3 pm, followed by a closing ceremony with live musical entertainment and light refreshments. (No rain date is scheduled.)

The Virtual Pasture began in 2009 when the space was converted into grazing land, opening with a flock of three Shetland ewes and a cardboard sign. The following year, with support from the Batelle Endowment for Technology in Human Affairs, an LED monitor was installed to stream live images from the sheep's home pasture and barn at the Stratford Ecological Center in Delaware, OH. Since then, the flock has grown and the sheep have made periodic visits to campus.

The Virtual Pasture is a partnership between The Living Culture Initiative in the Department of Art; the Social Responsibility Initiative in the College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences; the Wexner Center for the Arts; and the Stratford Ecological Center. Mercil says the endeavor was "part of my effort, as both artist and teacher, to engage the land-grant mission of Ohio State. Among other questions this project asks are: Where do we encounter farm animals now? How might we re-establish contact with those creatures with which we share deep, mutual dependence, but that we have made invisible to our daily living?"