History is being made at Artcast, Canada’s leading art foundry. Several important sculptures have recently been cast in bronze and will be installed in public places over the next few weeks. The painter Tom Thompson, Olympians Ian Millar and Big Ben, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, pioneer Alexander Wood and Franklin the Turtle are all scheduled to be unveiled in locations throughout Ontario in May and June.

The figure of Tom Thomson, seated on a log near a canoe, with a box of paints on his knee and brush in hand, will be unveiled at the Civic Square in Huntsville, Ont. on May 18. Commissioned by the Town of Huntsville and created by Brenda Wainman Goulet, the sculpture is six feet high and 550 pounds. The canoe is 13 feet long and 900 pounds. Both pieces are cast in bronze and patinated, or given a special finish. The unveiling will take place at 7: 00 p.m.

The installation of Ian Millar mounted on Big Ben in mid jump is scheduled for May 22 in Perth, Ont. Stewart Smith, Ruth Abernethy and Jean Abernethy were a team working from photographs to form these life-sized figures. Big Ben is 12 feet long and soars over a triple jump. The total weight of horse and rider is 1,150 pounds. Both are cast in bronze and patinated.

Eric Knoespel, Artcast’s founder and owner, reveals that “Ian Millar approved the figure of Big Ben, but Ian’s mother approved the statue of him. And why not? Could you approve a sculpture of yourself?” Horse and rider will be open to the air at 5:30 p.m. at the edge of Code Park off Wilson Street.

A statue of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King as a young man will be revealed at Kitchener Collegiate, Kitchener, Ont. on May 27. The work of Ruth Abernethy, the sculpture is cast in bronze, patinated, weighs 250 pounds, and commemorates the 150th anniversary of the school, which King attended in 1886.

The historical figure of Alexander Wood, a public servant for York, the former name of Toronto, was sculpted by Del Newbigging. Wood was involved in a homophobic scandal in 1810, and has been championed as a gay pioneer by Toronto’s Church/Wellesley Village BIA Monument Committee. The eight-foot, 1,300-pound patinated bronze sculpture will be first seen publicly in Toronto on the northwest corner of Church St. and Alexander St., at a ceremony at 1:00 p.m. on May 28.

Toronto’s Centre Island has received sculptures of Franklin the Turtle and some of his friends, sculpted by Ruth Abernethy after illustrations by Brenda Clark, illustrator for Paulette Bourgeois’s popular children’s books. The installation consists of Franklin in two versions, a bear, a goose, a beaver sitting on a log it has gnawed down, a rabbit jumping over a supine Franklin, a snail, six stumps as seats, and a checker board table. The pieces are of varying sizes, but much larger than life-size. All are cast in bronze, of varying weights and colours of patina. The official unveiling ceremony, by invitation only, is scheduled for June 10 at the Franklin Children’s Garden at Centre Island.

These significant sculptures have all been made at Artcast of Georgetown, Ont., which has made many other famous pieces, including the Juno Beach memorial in Normandy, the figure of Glenn Gould at the CBC building in Toronto, and the panels of 2,000 thumbprints in Kitchener. 

The casting process is known as the “lost wax process.” This requires making a rubber mould from the original sculpture, using the mould to make a wax duplicate, encasing the wax form in a ceramic shell, melting the wax out and then finally pouring the molten bronze into the ceramic shell to form the final sculpture. 

Artcast has its roots in a precision casting company that was founded by Eric Knoespel and two partners in Georgetown in 1964, and has become a thriving family business as an art foundry. Among the 14 staff are Eric’s daughter Mona Melançon, and son Marcus and his wife Cathy. Marcus, who is in charge of production, will supervise the installations of these new sculptures and both Marcus and Eric, with their families, will attend the unveilings. “Artcast’s bronze sculptures will last a few thousand years,” says Eric.

For photographs and more information, contact Eric or Marcus at 905-877-5455 or see www.artcast.com.

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