Custom Architectural Mementos & Institutional Art for Donor Gifts and Fundraising
At John Marc Anderson Studios, we transform iconic architectural landmarks into handcrafted miniature mementos, capturing the emotional significance of your institution’s architecture—turning pride, history, and place into a lasting tool for advancement, donor recognition, fund raising, “leave behind” gifts, retail settings, or brand continuity.
Xavier University Of Louisiana chose their historic administration building in New Orleans as their architectural icon for a wide range of applications.
This finished memento for Xavier University of Louisiana, this option is presented with gold hook or miniature easel, organza bag, and customized enclosure card. Typical memento size is 3”x6”. Easel version shown below.
Meaningful Donor Recognition & Fundraising Mementos
Without emotional resonance or a connection to place, conventional mementos—coffee mugs, pens, stress balls, koozies, and keychains—often blend together, fade from memory quickly, and frankly-- can be underwhelming to the recipient. Meaningful recognition deserves more than novelty; it deserves intention, craftsmanship, and enduring value.
Your project begins with the creation of a completely handcrafted large scale original relief work. Many organizations choose to keep the original for permanent display.
Got An Idea For A Memento?
Here’s how we do it..we begin with a site visit to your location if feasible, or procurement of high quality images. Our projects are turn key from idea to finished product.
In our studios, we create a large, stylized original relief work of your landmark, cultural icon, even your mascot!
We use a range of professional modeling materials, including rigid foams, basswood, and sculpting compounds, to create the original three-dimensional model, which is then carefully refined and miniaturized into a finished architectural artwork.
From our site visit or your images, we create a series of reference sketches prior to creating a relief and working model of your subject.
The original three dimensional relief is laser scanned, the image is miniaturized, and prototypes are used to make smaller variations of your iconic architecture.
The large scale, three dimensional relief of your subject is created using a variety of architectural modeling materials, then textured and hand colored (this original is shown before before color/texture applied).
Each miniaturized memento is uniquely hand crafted using our proprietary crystal quartz resin process and signed by artist John Marc Anderson.
Our mineralized formulation incorporates repurposed marble powder from quarries in the Pyrenees of southern France, reclaiming a natural byproduct of marble slab extraction that would otherwise go to waste. The finished product is completely inert and safe.
A high resolution 3D print from the laser scan of the original relief work is used to create silicone molds to cast our crystal quartz resin. The finished product is a crystallized quartz material that is only available through our studio.
The finished memento size and presentation will vary, depending upon the configuration of the subject. Tall, upright buildings or icons will be presented in vertical fashion, buildings with longer front elevations, horizontally. This memento is 3”x4.5” and is the easel option vs. hooked ornament.
Each individual memento is signed in gold by artist John Marc Anderson, adding a distinctive, personal touch. The memento can be left blank if desired, or embellished with other insignia or decals.
Why Your Architectural Icons Matter: A Powerful, Underutilized Tool for Institutional Advancement
Every institution, corporation, and municipality has an architectural icon—often more than one. It may be a historic building, a campus centerpiece, a civic landmark, a factory that shaped a city’s identity, or a structure that quietly anchors decades of shared memory.
These places are more than bricks and mortar. They are symbols of trust, continuity, and collective pride. Far too often, organizations fail to capitalize on these icons in a meaningful, strategic way—especially when it comes to advancement, donor engagement, alumni relations, recruitment, and long-term brand equity.
John Marc Anderson Studios can create your institutional advancement gift to help you turn physical space or cultural icon into emotional capital.
Architecture Is Emotional Capital
Advancement is not built on transactions alone; it is built on emotional connection. Architectural icons carry something few marketing tools can replicate: authentic emotional resonance.
People may forget a brochure or a pitch deck, but they remember:
Walking through a campus for the first time
Standing beneath a courthouse dome
Entering a library, sanctuary, or historic hall
Seeing a skyline that represents “home”
Architecture becomes a shared emotional shorthand—a visual reminder of belonging, accomplishment, and legacy. When institutions harness that symbolism intentionally, they turn physical space into emotional capital.
From Landmark to Legacy Piece: Cost And Project Scope
Creating the original elevation relief for Xavier University of New Orleans, measuring 24”x36”, allowed for high resolution miniature mementos after laser scanning and reducing to prototyping and subsequent casting.
The process of starting your John Marc Anderson Art institutional advancement project is easy.
1. Projects begin with procurement of your high resolution digital images, perhaps a site visit, and a brief idea-storming session with your team about the look and feel of the finished icon.
2. Using a variety of specialized model making and sculpting materials, the original is created by Marc and his team in our New Orleans, Louisiana, studio.
It’s designed and crafted by hand, then sealed, painted, and stained. The original is typically 30”-40” in longest dimension, (depending upon the height and length of your structure or subject).
3. The original is then laser scanned, and 3D images are created and printed to be used as masters for the silicone molds used to cast the memento product.
4. Individually cast in our proprietary crystallized quartz resin, each piece has the weight and presence of stone and offers a perfectly tuned texture and feel in the hand, conveying permanence.
After casting, each memento/ornament is hand-finished, accented with gold, carefully packaged, and shipped to you. Mementos measure approximately 3–4” x 5–6” and are $20 each, with a minimum order of 200 pieces in the intial project. Subsequent orders of mementos are shipped in quantities of 200 or more.
Creating the original relief work from photographs and reference documents begins with a three dimensional original artwork.This subject is the administration building on the Xavier University New Orleans campus.
The cost of the original relief work is typically $3000-3500, and covers the creation of the original large-scale relief, creation of the ornament/memento production molds, and long-term maintenance of the original work.
A typical initial project—including the original relief and 200 mementos minimum quantity—typically ranges from $6500-7500..
Subsequent orders are $20 per memento plus shipping with no other costs.
A site visit may be necessary if satisfactory elevation images are not available. A site visit incurs travel expenses, which is additional.
Typical project turnaround time is 6-8 weeks. Repeat orders for additional mementos require a production time of 3-4 weeks.
Remember, each memento is signed by the artist, and the customized enclosure card can include your choice of personalized message depending upon your audience.
Want even more information? Call 985 966 7000 for a personalized consultation. You can also email Marc Anderson directly at johnmarc56@gmail.com
PAST PROJECTS AND SUCCESS STORIES
creating an uber urban icon: “streetcar 6006”
“Streetcar 6006”, is a relief work depicting one of New Orleans most important cultural icons. Is your urban, corporate, or municipal icon working for you?
From a branding and urban development perspective, relief-based representations of civic icons strengthen institutional identity while supporting long-term funding and engagement goals.
Unlike generic civic imagery, the New Orleans streetcar embodies the rhythm and motion of the legendary city itself, making it a powerful branding device that feels authentic rather than imposed.
When leveraged thoughtfully, such an icon doesn’t just represent a city; it anchors it, transforming infrastructure into a shorthand for history, resilience, and shared urban pride.
Custom architectural and infrastructure mementos are especially effective for capital campaigns, anniversary milestones, major gifts, and public-private partnerships, extending an institution’s presence beyond the site itself and into homes, offices, and boardrooms.
Finished 3”x6” New Orleans Streetcar memento in seasonal ornament configuration with hook, organza bag, and scripted enclosure card.
st. louis cathedral new orleans
Original relief of The St. Louis Cathedral, New Orleans, Louisiana. This was a three quarter elevation depiction, and the lower section of the Cathedral was intentionally removed.
The original relief work of The St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans being designed and fabricated.
From majestic cathedrals to city skylines, urban landmarks, and even a classic New Orleans streetcar, Marc has created a prolific curated collection of relief works.
The original reliefs are laser scanned to create smaller sizes that can be used in a variety of projects.
Cast quartz memento of The St. Louis Cathedral, New Orleans, Louisiana. This memento is an example of a project designed to reward donors contributing to a grassroots initiative to help fund a major restoration project for the internationally recognized edifice.
START YOUR PROJECT TODAY! CALL 985 966 7000 TO GET STARTED.
Refined in Scale. Enduring in Meaning.
In a digital-first world, tangible objects stand out. A handcrafted, miniaturized architectural icon does what emails and screens cannot—it becomes part of someone’s daily environment. On a desk or shelf, it sparks conversation, reinforces affiliation, and quietly extends your institution’s presence. Handed to a graduate, left quietly after a meeting, tucked inside of a gift basket- it’ll create long lasting effects.
For advancement teams, these pieces function as more than keepsakes. They are permanent brand ambassadors.
Institutional Art as Donor & Patron Recognition
Campaigns end. Relationships endure. Architecture represents stability, longevity, and shared history—making it a powerful tool for donor recognition, alumni engagement, and recruitment. When institutions leverage their architectural identity, they send a clear message: You belong to something lasting.
Whether you are looking for a more upscale donor gift, philanthropic recognition, or you are trying to recognize and affirm legacy donors who attend events and support your cause, giving a small, pocket sized token of your appreciation has a much weight as a gigantic walnut framed wall plaque. Why? Because it’s portable, can be handed off and passed around, and requires the holder to study it and admire it in hand.
Our studio has received feedback from many clients who use our mementos for a broad range of applications, and the message is always the same. In practice, donors often respond more deeply to small, thoughtfully designed objects given directly into their hands than to large, cumbersome objects that are considered standard fare (think lucite objects, anything with a frame under glass, trophies, etc. These items are expensive, difficult to ship or transport and protect, and are simply not intimate.
A hand-held memento invites intimacy. It’s personal, tactile, and private in a way a framed recognition piece can’t be. Donors keep these objects on desks, shelves, or at home—not because they’re meant to be displayed publicly, but because they carry meaning. The value isn’t scale; it’s intention.
Who benefits when you have a custom memento project designed that memorializes your architectural icon?
Municipalities build civic pride and stakeholder trust
Corporations reinforce heritage, credibility, and place-based identity
Cultural institutions extend their mission beyond their walls
In every case, architecture becomes a quiet storytelling device.
Strategy Over Decoration
Effective use requires intention:
Identify buildings with emotional significance
Translate them into high-quality, tangible icons
Use them purposefully—as gifts, recognition pieces, and relationship tools
Done right, architectural icons become active tools of advancement, not passive décor.
A Quiet Advantage That Lasts
The most effective engagement tools don’t shout. They work consistently, over time. Architectural icons remind donors why they gave, alumni where they belong, and partners who they align with—long after the moment has passed.