Seat of Knowledge

A Public Art Sculpture at Aitkenvale Library, Townsville.

The Seat Of Knowledge is in fact a seat. It is a public seat outside the main entrance to the Aitkenvale Library in Townsville. The book weighs approximately 5 tonne and is made from Chillagoe Marble that I carved at my Studio on the Atherton Tablelands and then transported to its permanent home in Townsville.

The inscription carved into the surface of the open pages is a quotation by Lawrence Clark Powell, ” Write to be understood, speak to be heard, and read to grow,” a large bookmark, marks the position of the quote in the open book.

Lawrence Clark Powell was University Librarian at the UCLA Library and head librarian of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library from 1944 until 1961. He was the first dean of the School of Library Service at UCLA, which later merged to become the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. He received a BA from Occidental College in 1928, a doctorate from the University of Burgundy in Dijon (Université de Bourgogne) in 1932, and a Certificate of Librarianship from UC Berkeley in 1937.

After retiring from UCLA in 1966, Powell moved to Tucson, Arizona in 1971, where – as Professor in Residence for nearly two decades – he was instrumental in the growth of the University of Arizona Graduate School of Library Science, now known as the University of Arizona School of Information Resources and Library Science.

Photography by Amanda Feher.

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