Mother of the Dispossessed

This sculpture by Gretchen Lothrop stands in the front lawn of the Newman Catholic Student Center Parish, located directly across from the Carolina Inn on Pittsboro Street. Inspired by a painting of the Madonna cradling her newborn, "Mother of the Dispossessed" is surrounded by seven stepping stones naming the sometimes forgotten members of society, including the mentally ill and undocumented workers. Lothrop's sculpture also serves, in an even further abstracted form, as the logo for the Parish. At night, the sculpture is illuminated by a circle of floodlights.