Using 3D laser scanning from NVision enabled a remarkable “collaboration” between two sculptors separated by 160 years. The Southlake, Texas, company’s precision scanning allowed artist Hugh Hayden to create a new, 3D-printed version of John Quincy Adams Ward’s groundbreaking sculpture The Freedman using a digital copy of the bronze cast of Ward’s 1863 original. NVision’s scans provided Hayden with a 3D computer-aided design (CAD) file of the sculpture’s highly detailed surface geometry, which he then digitally reworked to create a Freedman for the 21st century.

Hayden’s work is part of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art’s exhibition “Emancipation: The Unfinished Project of Liberation” (held in Fort Worth, Texas). The show explores the ideas of freedom and emancipation, both past and present, through the work of seven Black contemporary artists alongside historical artwork.

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