College of the Canyons officials are set to unveil a new sculpture collection at a special dedication ceremony being held at the Santa Clarita Performing Arts Center on Thursday.

Dabah stands beside a piece on display at a Yucca Valley community facility.

The collection includes a series of welded steel sculptures created by artist Simi Dabah as part of a campus beautification project at both the Valencia and Canyon Country campuses.

“The collection is a series of 25 sculptures made out of steel and iron, and some of them are as large as 30 feet high and weigh hundreds of pounds,” said Murray Wood, chief development officer of the COC Foundation. “We approached (Dabah) because we really thought that they lent themselves very well to the campus scenery… It highlights the beauty of the COC campus.”

Welded from pieces of scrap metal, Dabah’s sculptures have been praised for being environment-friendly and inspirational to the viewer, according to officials.

Thursday’s ceremony will celebrate the formal unveiling of Dabah’s largest public collection of sculptures, all of which have been donated for permanent installation.

“The artist has been doing this for 40 years,” Wood said. “He has exhibited his work in about 250 locations in Southern California; some of them are at nonprofit organizations, some of them are at municipal buildings… We will have the largest collection of them.”

Dabah is scheduled to discuss his work at the the dedication ceremony, which is being hosted by the Santa Clarita Community College District Board of Trustees and COC Chancellor Dianne Van Hook.