news, latest-news, kid on books, new heights of knowloedge, canberra, public art, reading, literacy, stephen byron, canberra airport
Stephen Byron was in an American ski town in the off-season in 2019 when he spotted a kid perched on a pile of books. Cast in bronze and of an indeterminate gender, the child looked relaxed and whimsical – just the thing to complete one of the newest corners of Civic. So, the chief executive of Canberra Airport bought it. New Heights of Knowledge – Between Innings, by American sculptor Gary Price, now has price of place in Lyric Lane at Constitution Place, at the top of Constitution Avenue in Civic. Mr Byron said he was immediately taken by the work when he spotted it in a gallery in Steamboat, Colorado. “I think the reason it’s very exciting is it’s about knowledge, acquisition of knowledge, the beauty of young people, and I think it signifies the opportunity that lies ahead,” he said. “Everything we’re doing [at Constitution Place] is about place-making. They call it urban design, I suppose, and quality and excellence in architecture, but it’s really about place-making, and it is part of the centre of our city. “The idea of this playful, youthful, full-of-opportunity-type child, sitting on a tower of knowledge, I think is befitting of the place that’s named after the founding of our Constitution, a place that sits adjacent to the Legislative Assembly, a place that sits right near our Canberra Library.” The work is one of three artworks destined for the precinct. One, a statue of barrister Andrew Inglis Clark in weathered bronze, by Perth-based sculptor April Pine, now overlooks the intersection on London Circuit, and the third, by sculptor Phil Price, is yet to be unveiled. Mr Byron said he knew when he saw the sculpture that it would work for Lyric Lane – a space that been under consideration by the team designing the precinct for some time. And, he said, it was the small pockets of cities that often felt special. “There’s a lot of effort that architects spend on the design of the buildings, and I think the architecture and the materials that are in the buildings are fantastic, and they’re of a very high quality, but there is something that is so special about the spaces between the buildings,” he says. “I always have the sense that people of Canberra go to Civic and this is a civic place. So I think I just saw this young, positive optimism in this picture. The person’s a bit relaxed, reflecting and they’ve been placed on this tower of books. I mean, it’s just a bit of fun.” The airport is one of several developers, including Hindmarsh and the Molonglo Group, investing in public artwork around Canberra. Meanwhile, the ACT government has scaled back on funding public artworks since former Chief Minister Jon Stanhope’s controversial percentage-for-art scheme was scrapped in 2009. Mr Byron said developers like the Canberra Airport Group, which is also developing the Molonglo Valley suburb of Denman Prospect, saw investing in artworks as a responsibility. “You make the place and the community lives with and experiences it for the rest of time,” he said. “It can all be concrete, or we can make it more interesting and it can also be a very pretty landscape. But landscape alone doesn’t capture the full opportunity of experience that the inclusion of artworks affords. It’s exciting, and it does help make a place special and unique. And I do think there’s an optimism about this fellow. “Maybe we’re seeing that a little more at this time of our lives that I wouldn’t have expected in September, 2019, but it’s really sweet, isn’t it?”
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Stephen Byron was in an American ski town in the off-season in 2019 when he spotted a kid perched on a pile of books.
Cast in bronze and of an indeterminate gender, the child looked relaxed and whimsical – just the thing to complete one of the newest corners of Civic.
So, the chief executive of Canberra Airport bought it.
New Heights of Knowledge – Between Innings, by American sculptor Gary Price, now has price of place in Lyric Lane at Constitution Place, at the top of Constitution Avenue in Civic.
Mr Byron said he was immediately taken by the work when he spotted it in a gallery in Steamboat, Colorado.
“I think the reason it’s very exciting is it’s about knowledge, acquisition of knowledge, the beauty of young people, and I think it signifies the opportunity that lies ahead,” he said.
“Everything we’re doing [at Constitution Place] is about place-making. They call it urban design, I suppose, and quality and excellence in architecture, but it’s really about place-making, and it is part of the centre of our city.
“The idea of this playful, youthful, full-of-opportunity-type child, sitting on a tower of knowledge, I think is befitting of the place that’s named after the founding of our Constitution, a place that sits adjacent to the Legislative Assembly, a place that sits right near our Canberra Library.”
The work is one of three artworks destined for the precinct. One, a statue of barrister Andrew Inglis Clark in weathered bronze, by Perth-based sculptor April Pine, now overlooks the intersection on London Circuit, and the third, by sculptor Phil Price, is yet to be unveiled.
Mr Byron said he knew when he saw the sculpture that it would work for Lyric Lane – a space that been under consideration by the team designing the precinct for some time.
And, he said, it was the small pockets of cities that often felt special.
“There’s a lot of effort that architects spend on the design of the buildings, and I think the architecture and the materials that are in the buildings are fantastic, and they’re of a very high quality, but there is something that is so special about the spaces between the buildings,” he says.
“I always have the sense that people of Canberra go to Civic and this is a civic place. So I think I just saw this young, positive optimism in this picture. The person’s a bit relaxed, reflecting and they’ve been placed on this tower of books. I mean, it’s just a bit of fun.”
The airport is one of several developers, including Hindmarsh and the Molonglo Group, investing in public artwork around Canberra.
Meanwhile, the ACT government has scaled back on funding public artworks since former Chief Minister Jon Stanhope’s controversial percentage-for-art scheme was scrapped in 2009.
Mr Byron said developers like the Canberra Airport Group, which is also developing the Molonglo Valley suburb of Denman Prospect, saw investing in artworks as a responsibility.
“You make the place and the community lives with and experiences it for the rest of time,” he said.
“It can all be concrete, or we can make it more interesting and it can also be a very pretty landscape. But landscape alone doesn’t capture the full opportunity of experience that the inclusion of artworks affords. It’s exciting, and it does help make a place special and unique. And I do think there’s an optimism about this fellow.
“Maybe we’re seeing that a little more at this time of our lives that I wouldn’t have expected in September, 2019, but it’s really sweet, isn’t it?”
