"These works are a tribute to nature, to culture, and to time itself."
That's how UC Merced Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz described "Four Seasons of Yosemite" during a reception at the Leo and Dottie Kolligian Library, where campus leaders and community members, donors and the artist himself gathered to celebrate the university's milestone acquisition of the four monumental stained-glass murals.
A fixture of the library's third-floor study space since 2016, the murals were created by artist William Poulson. They are now a permanent part of the university's art collection, marking the largest art acquisition in UC Merced's history.
"What a wonderful thing, to be able to celebrate the significant occasion of the permanent acquisition of the 'Four Seasons of Yosemite' with you today," said Sarah Forzetting, who became UC Merced's university librarian July 1. One of the first things she learned on the job, she said, was that the deal had just closed. "How lucky am I?"
A Decades-Long Vision
Poulson first conceived "Four Seasons of Yosemite" in 1986, shortly after closing a stained-glass studio in Maui. That September, he arrived in Yosemite National Park and spent weeks sketching its valley. The drawings would become the finished designs for each mural.
The fall mural, "Tissiack," the Ahwahneechee name for Half Dome, was the first he completed, in 1988. It premiered at the park's Ahwahnee Hotel in 1989 and was featured at the Yosemite Visitor Center the following year.
Twenty years later, in 2008, Poulson finished "The Chief," representing winter. The monochromatic mural centers on a full moon over snow-covered terrain, with Cathedral Spires rising on one side of the valley and El Capitan on the other, while a bobcat looks down on a pair of snowshoe hares.
The spring mural, "Cascade Creek," followed in 2019, featuring vivid dogwood blossoms and a rushing creek in whites, blues and greens. Poulson completed the series in 2022 with "Valley Life," representing summer. The mural depicts a view of Yosemite Valley looking west toward El Capitan and Sentinel Rock.
Each mural is 14 feet wide and 8 feet high, assembled from seven individual 2-by-8-foot glass panels.
From Yosemite Valley to UC Merced
Housing four 14-foot murals proved to be its own challenge over the years. To free up studio space to complete later panels, Poulson arranged with Yosemite's park concessionaire to display the fall and winter murals in Yosemite Lodge’s Cliff Room. When the concession contract changed hands, the murals had to come out, and Poulson had nowhere to put them.
Trevor Hirst, executive director of UC Merced’s Health Sciences Research Institute, and Linda Hirst, professor of physics, noticed the bobcat featured in “The Chief” and thought of UC Merced’s mascot. They helped connect Poulson with former UC Merced Vice Chancellor Kyle Hofmann, who saw the murals and immediately thought of exhibiting them in the library.
Then-University Librarian Haipeng Li embraced the idea, and in spring 2016 the winter mural moved to the library, with the fall mural following later that year. The murals were on loan for several years before the university moved to acquire them permanently.
A Community Effort
"This acquisition could not have happened through university resources alone," Collin Lewis, UC Merced’s executive director for the arts, told the crowd. "It happened because of you."
Longtime Merced-area arts advocate Carolyn Vara played a leading role in building community support for the acquisition, spearheading a fundraising campaign that brought together more than 100 donors. Community members contributed gifts ranging from $25 to tens of thousands of dollars toward giving the murals a permanent home at UC Merced.
Beyond the fundraising, Lewis pointed to the murals' expanding role in the classroom. He credited Maria DePrano, a UC Merced art history professor who teaches with the murals each year and draws comparisons between the murals' contemporary craftsmanship and the historic stained glass of France's Chartres Cathedral.
"That's exactly what a university art collection should do," Lewis said, "connect history to the present, connect the classroom to the world around us, and give our students the chance to encounter remarkable works firsthand."
Poulson said he was glad the murals found a lasting home on a university campus. "I think this is the best place for them: a place for education, for art students and for the community," he said. "I hope you feel the same."
The acquisition comes as the library expands its broader cultural-preservation initiatives. Forzetting announced that the library will soon open a facility dedicated to preserving the cultural memory and historical record of the Sierra Nevada and Central Valley, funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities along with matching support from the chancellor's office.
UC Merced's Permanent Collection, established by Muñoz in 2022, has grown to more than 100 works through both gifts and strategic acquisitions. Much of that growth has come under Lewis, who oversees the collection and the university's public art portfolio. He also is the director of UC Merced Arts, the performing and visual arts presenting program.
"Every work that joins UC Merced's collection becomes part of how we teach and how we build community,” Lewis said “The 'Four Seasons of Yosemite' murals are an enduring part of our institution's intellectual, cultural and civic life.
"Art like this belongs at the center of a public university's mission," he added. "None of it would be possible without the generosity of our donors and supporters, who share our belief that art builds community, improves our wellbeing, and can change our lives and the places around us."
Plan Your Visit
"Four Seasons of Yosemite" is on permanent display on the third floor of the Kolligian Library, open to the public during regular library hours.
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