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Alberta Teachers Centennial Sculpture

Massive Public Art Corten Steel Statue

The Garden is dedicated to the province’s teachers and commemorates the ATA’s 100th anniversary.

Project

Location

Situated at the northeast side of the Alberta Legislative grounds in Edmonton, Alberta

Artistic Team

Rollie Pemberton (Cadence Weapon), Richard Tosczak and Jacob Dutton

Project Background

Sculptor Tosczak said the concept for the sculpture took a long time to come together. At first, seeing that his friends in education lead chaotic lives, he developed “this really chaotic crazy idea.” The final concept began to take shape when artist, Dutton started experimenting with profiles of youth.

It was the encouragement of his honors English teacher that helped put poet Rollie Pemberton on the path to “The Garden.” The poem is an extended metaphor that shows the different paths that students may take. While some experience success, others get lost. “What I believe is that teachers are always trying to encourage students and they function as the gardeners of our seeds, the children. I wanted to show that,”

The sculpture itself depicts seven student faces looking outward. Taken together, they form a tree. The poem is scrawled like graffiti (in Pemberton’s own hand) all over a massive steel and bronze sculpture. Symbolically, it speaks to the vital relationships between teachers, students and their communities.

Source: ATA World Teachers Day

Project Approach

The 2018 World Teachers’ Day event was held at the Alberta legislature grounds and involved the dedication of a sculpture commissioned in honor of the Association’s 100th anniversary. We were asked by our friends at Behrends Group to produce the artists’ seven student faces out of corten steel. Standing 14 feet tall the entire structure was 3d modeled prior to fabrication. Designed so that each face was internally welded onto each other, each of the corten steel faces was CNC cut to precision. The final structure was sandblasted to showcase “The Garden” poem.