"Put heart in our square" - (Archive)

At the end of November 2007, we were awarded a grant of £38,380 to refurbish Tower Square by the People's Millions Lottery Fund. This was a true community effort, with a group of residents developing the plans alongside a landscape architect and mosaic artist, and the whole community taking part in telephone voting to win the funding.

Over the next year the work was carried out, with the continuing involvement of the community. The centrepiece of the Square is a fishpond mosaic, designed and installed by Gary Drostle.

Pond Selected for Two Exhibitions

The Carterton lily pond has been selected to be included in the Mosaic Arts International 2010 Exhibition at The Smith Museum of Stained Glass at Navy Pier in Chicago, Illinois. The exhibition is a world showcase for mosaic art and is organised by the Society of American Mosaic Artists (SAMA) www.americanmosaics.org. SAMA received entries from over 250 artists in 8 countries which the jurors carefully deliberated over for several days. The jury selected 48 pieces for inclusion in the MAI exhibition which was held from March 1 - April 30, 2010.

The pond was also selected to appear in a publication of prints, and we have been told:
"The mosaic Carterton Lily Pond has been juried into Mosaic Art NOW's Exhibition in Print 2010. The Exhibition appeared in the February 2010 edition of the annual.

"301 artists from 25 countries submitted 521 mosaics which were reviewed multiple times on paper, on computer screen and by large-scale projection by our juror, Scott Shields, Ph.D, Chief Curator of the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California. Out of this large group of work, Dr. Shields selected 18 mosaics, of which Carterton's lily pond was one."

Tower Square has been well used since its refurbishment and will be spring-cleaned when the weather improves.

More information about this project and Gary's other work can be viewed here www.drostle.com/carterton.html

Photographs: Tan Marchant and Gary Drostle