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Tours

1. Public Sculpture Initiative Walking Tour

   Explore sculptures throughout the Symons campus that inspire thought, reflection, and creativity.

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   1. This Column Ends

      Artist: Shayne Dark

      Date: 2015

      Location: On berm near Blackburn Hall

      Materials: Steel, painted blue metallic. Dimensions: 304.8 cm x 66 cm x 66 cm. Fourteen painted disk-shaped modules, forming a tower. Painted in vibrant indigo blue colour. 

       

      A brilliant blue sculpture on display just inside the entrance of Trent University’s Symons Campus. Heritage Canada certifies This Column Ends as a designated piece of Outstanding Significance and National Importance (OSNI).
      
      Read more about This Column Ends.
      
      

      About Artist Shayne Dark
      

      
      Shayne Dark is an Ontario-based artist who has had his work exhibited internationally and is best known for his sculptural works. He says that he has always taken a keen interest in every aspect of the process of art production, which he feels draws upon and focuses the physical and perceptual experience of the world. His works, often coated by eye-popping saturated pigments are said to often evoke the contrasts between urban settings and the natural world and are meant to stimulate a spiritual or visceral reaction in the viewer.
      
      Read more about Shayne Dark.

   2. Dead Reckoning

      Artist: David Robinson

      Location: Behind the Athletics Centre on the banks of the Otonabee river

      Date: 2019

      Materials: Bronze, stainless steel & weathering steel. Size: 26' h x 18' w x 2' d

       

      Esteemed Canadian artist David Robinson installed Dead Reckoning on August 30, 2021. Representing grit, determination and a commitment to personal excellence, this striking sculpture features the strained body of a muscular rower leaning over his oars to propel himself toward his destination, representing the passion of rowing and of personal wayfinding.
      
      Read more about Dead Reckoning.
      
      
      

      About Artist David Robinson

      
      Robinson's striking sculptures incorporate a variety of materials ranging from bronze, steel and silver to concrete, mirror and paper. While his oeuvre is the figure, he often adds psychological and mythological twists to his subjects by situating them in environments that speak to the inherent tensions of human life. Robinson has a deep reverence for imagery and symbolism, and this, combined with his remarkable skill, allows the viewer to surmise and discover the allegorical through contemporary form.
      
      

      Read more about David Robinson.

   3. La Porte d'Or - The Golden Door

      Artist: André Fournelle

      Location: Bata Library, second floor

      Date: 2009

      Materials: Steel, glass, anthracite charcoal, & gold leaves. Size: 7.9 ft x 13.1 ft x 4.9 ft

       

      André Fournelle, Québec artist and winner of the 2021 prix Paul-Émile-Borduas, installed La Porte d’Or on May 16, 2022.

      André Fournelle's art incorporates raw materials and is designed to make us think. This sculpture explores coal as a metaphor. Coal comes from ancient trees, leaves and vegetation. With time and compression, the vegetal changes to mineral, in a process of transmutation. The sculpture is also about the age of coal and the way it has brought us to where we are today - we are walking through that door to a new age which isn’t yet determined and is in that sense an open door.
      
      
      

      About Artist André Fournelle
      
      

      Read more about André Fournelle.

   4. Margaret Laurence

      Artist: Almuth Lütkenhaus

      Date: 1984

      Location: Bata Library

       

       

      Bronze sculpture - bust of Margaret Laurence on marble base and wooden stand.
      
      
      Read more about The Margaret Laurence Sculpture.

   5. Portal (Indoor)

      Artist: David James '68

      Date: 2008

      The two sculptures unveiled in 2012 provide a glimpse of the range and variety that are coming in the years ahead. Both works are Sculpture of Bust by David James titled “Portal” and share the same form, but with contrasting grandeur.
      
      

      Outdoor

      Location: Situated at Symons Campus, west bank, on the slope between Chemical Sciences Building and Gzowski College. The impressive structure overlooks the Otonabee River.

      Materials: The sculpture weighs 8,000 lbs (3,600 kg) and is carved from Belfast Black granite from South Africa. 

      Dimensions: 6 feet (1.8 metres) high and long

       

      Indoor

      Location: The cast glass sculpture is displayed in Trent’s Bata Library on the second floor and is the most valuable such work donated to date by a Canadian artist.

      Materials: The other Portal is made of high-lead topaz coloured crystal and weighs 120 lbs (54 kg).

      Dimensions: It is about 2 feet high and 1.5 feet long.
      
      Read more about the Portal Sculpture.
      
      
      

      About Artist David James
      
      Canadian artist David James creates luminous sculptures cast in glass and bold exterior works carved in stone that often incorporate stainless steel. His sculptures have received international recognition and garnered a number of important awards.

      
      Read more about David James.

   6. Inuksuk

      Artist: Angaangaq Lyberth

      Date: 1998

      Location: Warren Garden on the East Bank of the Symons Campus

      Materials: The original Inuksuk was made by Angaangaq with the help of Drain Bros who quarried the stone to his specifications and delivered it to the site and constructed it with Angaangaq’s oversight.
      
      

      This Inuksuk was created by Angaangaq Lyberth, a Kalaallit Inuk from Greenland. Using specially-selected local stone, he built it during his time as a visiting lecturer in 1998. Its present location is situated directly across the river from the Bata Library where the inaugural meeting of what would become the Inuit Tapirisat occurred on February 21, 1971. The accompanying plaque honours Trent University’s longstanding commitment and support of all circumpolar peoples.

   7. Garden Remembrance

      Artist: Ron and Lynda Baird

      Location: Warren Garden on the East Bank of the Symons Campus

      Date: 2005
      
      

      This work of art is a permanent commemorative record of Margery Warren's contribution to Trent. It was designed and created by renowned Canadian sculptors and artists Ron and Lynda Baird. The Bairds created this garden sculpture using laser cut brushed stainless steel. It is illuminated from within and incorporates the name of the garden at its base. This work was donated in 2006 as part of the Margery J. Warren Estate. This legacy gift provided funding for the creation of the Warren garden, and ongoing maintenance.

   8. Portal (Outdoor)

      Artist: David James '68

      Date: 2008

      The two sculptures unveiled in 2012 provide a glimpse of the range and variety that are coming in the years ahead. Both works are Sculpture of Bust by David James titled “Portal” and share the same form, but with contrasting grandeur.
      
      

      Outdoor

      Location: Situated at Symons Campus, west bank, on the slope between Chemical Sciences Building and Gzowski College. The impressive structure overlooks the Otonabee River.

      Materials: The sculpture weighs 8,000 lbs (3,600 kg) and is carved from Belfast Black granite from South Africa. 

      Dimensions: 6 feet (1.8 metres) high and long

       

      Indoor

      Location: The cast glass sculpture is displayed in Trent’s Bata Library on the second floor and is the most valuable such work donated to date by a Canadian artist.

      Materials: The other Portal is made of high-lead topaz coloured crystal and weighs 120 lbs (54 kg).

      Dimensions: It is about 2 feet high and 1.5 feet long.

       

      Read more about the Portal Sculpture.
      
      

      About Artist David James
      
      Canadian artist David James creates luminous sculptures cast in glass and bold exterior works carved in stone that often incorporate stainless steel. His sculptures have received international recognition and garnered a number of important awards.

      
      Read more about David James.

   9. House of Sticks

      Artist: Peter Powning

      Location: Otonabee College quad

      Date: 2006

      Materials: Glass, copper, corten steel, cast bronze, granite. Size 203 x 91.5 x 58.8 cm

       

      About Artist Peter Powning

      Beyond mastering time-honoured sculpture techniques and materials, Powning is an acknowledged innovator in craft processes and execution of form. While the arc of his visual language can be read from his early 1970s stoneware through to the radical fusions and huge sculptures of today, the sheer extent of his experimentation and aesthetic daring is staggering.

      Read more about Peter Powning

   10. The Parting of the Waters

       Artist: Cecil Richards

       Location: Otonabee College lawn

       Date: 1974
       
       

       Cecil Richards was originally from Cornwall, UK, and came to Canada in 1925. In 1951, Richards started the sculpture department at the University of Manitoba. He also taught at the University of British Columbia and the Cranbrook Academy of Art. In 1966, he retired in Lakefield, Ontario, north of Peterborough, and established strong links with Trent University. In the mid-1970s the artist held an exhibit at Trent's Mackenzie Gallery. The Parting of the Waters was donated to the University by Jean and Tom Nind (president of Trent University from 1970 – 1979).

   11. Corphéum XIII

       Artist: Claude Millette

       Location: Ward Garden

       Date: 2016

       Materials: Sculpture made of Corteen Steel. Dimensions: 190 x 127 x 107 cm 

       
       Renowned artist and sculptor Claude Millette revealed his donated sculpture Corphéum XIII in the Otonabee gardens on Sunday, September 29, 2019

       
       Click here to read more about Corphéum XIII.

       
       About Artist Claude Millette

       
       Claude Millette’s career spans more than 40 years. Since the beginning of his practice, he worked in sculpture, installation and public art. His sculptures have been shown not only in Quebec, but also in Ontario, United States and Europe. He received commissions for more than 40 public artworks, mainly in Quebec, but also in Russia, France, Costa Rica and Mexico. His works have been acquired by several museums (Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal; Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Quebec City), and stand in municipal and private collections.
       
       Read more about Claude Millette.