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9-563: In 1982 funds were needed to install Albatross a statue on the waterfront by Tanya Ashken . The Wellington City Council had agreed to a site on the waterfront but funding for the sculpture had to be found. After the initial fundraising for Albatross Henry Lang and Dr Ian Prior formed the Trust in 1983 to advocate for public sculptures and provide financial support. During the demolition and rebuilding which occurred in Wellington city in

18-742: The Central School of Arts and Crafts in London, where she was awarded a diploma in silversmithing in 1960, and also studied sculpture at the Atelier de Del Debbio in Paris the following year. She began making jewellery in semi-precious materials in 1962. She does not draw a distinction between her jewellery and her sculpture: “her jewellery is small sculpture that can be worn.” Ashken married New Zealand artist John Drawbridge (1930–2005) in 1960 and emigrated to New Zealand in 1963. In 1966 her work

27-661: The 1980s the Trust saw that public sculptures would enhance cultural and spiritual values as the city was redeveloped. The Trust is funded by private citizens, businesses and other bodies. It works in partnership with the Wellington City Council. It has had a partnership with Meridian Energy to create the Meridian Energy Wellington Wind Sculptures on Cobham Drive and the Griffin Charitable Trust for

36-466: The Lambton Quay works. In 2002–2003 the Trust organised a Lambton Quay Sculpture Competition which resulted in several sculptures in the city centre: Spinning Top by Robert Jahnke , Invisible City by Anton Parsons , Shells by Jeff Thomson and Protoplasm by Phil Price . In 2007 Neil Plimmer, the Trust's chair, wrote that the Trust had commissioned 19 public sculptures since 1982. By 2023

45-583: The Trust had installed 30 sculptures. Neil Plimmer was chairperson from 2001 to 2013 and Sue Elliott became chair in 2013. Since 2014 the Trust has organised PARK(ing) Day, an annual event in which parking spaces in Cuba Street have been taken over by a variety of artists and others to examine how public spaces are used. Five kinetic sculptures make up the Wind Sculpture Walk on Cobham Drive. The sculptures were designed to take advantage of

54-774: The water sculpture Albatross (1986) in Frank Kitts Park, Wellington. This was a first commission for the Wellington Sculpture Trust. Hone Tuwhare wrote a poem to mark the occasion. Ashken said she got the idea for the Albatross sculpture while walking along a beach in Island Bay in 1979 and seeing waves crashing around rocks. She initially submitted Albatross to the Aotea Square Water Sculpture competition and

63-497: The windy location. Tanya Ashken Joan Tanya Handley Drawbridge ONZM (née Ashken ; born 1939 in London , England), known as Tanya Ashken , is a New Zealand silversmith and sculptor. She was one of a number of European-trained jewellers who came to New Zealand in the 1960s and transformed contemporary jewellery in that country, including Jens Hoyer Hansen , Kobi Bosshard and Gunter Taemmler. Ashken attended

72-856: Was included in Recent New Zealand Sculpture at the Auckland City Art Gallery . In 1967 Ashken was the second artist to be awarded the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship , an opportunity for her to spend a year in Dunedin developing ideas for large sculptures. After this Ashken attracted a number of major commissions, including Seabird V (1974) for the New Zealand High Commission in Canberra and her best-known work,

81-524: Was shortlisted as one of six finalists. In December 1979 the commission was awarded to Terry Stringer 's Mountain Fountain . Art historian Anne Kirker describes Ashken's sculpture as “graceful organic forms articulated by the play of natural light”, and notes the evocation of “weathered stone or the graceful movements of seabirds – familiar components of her Island Bay home in Wellington“. In

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