1st. Artist's Bench Awarded to Beth Alber:
Words
by Famous Canadian Visionary Written in Stone
The first commission in a series of six artist’s benches for the Art Centre’s sculpture park features lasting words by celebrated visionary, Pierre Elliott Trudeau. The three-ton Quebec granite bench, designed by artist Beth Alber, is inscribed with two sentences from the former Prime Minister’s Memoirs.
"A country is something that is built every day out of certain basic shared values. And so it is in the hands of every Canadian to determine how well and wisely we shall build the country of the future."
“We’re
delighted that the artist created not only a functional bench,” said Art
Centre Director Judith Nasby, “but also a timely work of art that ‘speaks’
to the people of Canada.”
Alber
is an accomplished silversmith and Co-ordinator of the Material Art and Design
Department at the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto.
In 1997, she created the commission Marker of Change in Vancouver
— a circle of 14 granite benches honouring the women students killed in the
Montreal Massacre. Her work is
included in many public and private collections across Canada.
Visionary was commissioned with funds donated by James and Diane King with the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts Acquisition Assistance Program.