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3 | W aterloo C hronicle | T hursday,M ay 27,2021 w aterloochronicle.ca THE 2021 GRADUATE FOR ONLY $75 To place your ad, please call 1-877-646-6701 or email contact@starmetrolandmedia.com you will receive an ad in our special salute to graduates section published in the June 17th edition of the paper with photo and congratulatory message of your choice. IN YOUR LIFECongratulate There's a sculpture at the corner of Norman and Park streets in Waterloo called the John Labatt Bar- ley Field. The forged steel and copper installation acts as a marker for a brewery that operated for almost 140 years, and sits within the former site of the Kuntz/ Carling/Labatt brewery that was demolished in 1993. I interviewed its creator, sculptor Jane Buyers, a few years ago for the Chroni- cle's Waterloo Community Guide, and told her my fa- ther had worked at the brewery for 36 years. We discussed how that brew- ery, despite being a fixture in the community, is large- ly forgotten. "When I was planning out the piece, I was thinking that before long people would forget that the brew- ery had been here, and how quickly that history can be forgotten," said Buyers, who worked with local black- smithing technicians Steve White and Sandra Dunn to create the sculpture. "It's always surprised me how quickly something once so prominent in a community can just disap- pear, and in time, it can be difficult to find someone who knows anything about it," she said. Buyers was my studio instructor when I was a student in the University of Waterloo's fine arts pro- gram. Since first coming to the area in the late '80s, Buyers said she has been amazed by how significantly the re- gion has changed. "When I first started coming to Waterloo, there were so many industrial factories here that would have made for good studio space, but most of them are gone now or have been turned into condos," she said. "But even with all the changes, Waterloo still doesn't feel very urban when compared to Montre- al or Toronto -- and I think that's a really positive thing." Walking past the John Labatt Barley Field sculp- ture recently got me think- ing about the role of public art. It is there to engage the emotion and the intellect in everyday places. Some- times it is beloved, some- times it is ridiculed, and as always, beauty remains in the eye of the beholder. Buyers said that public art "brings meaning and layers of depth, signifi- cance and symbolism to a place that otherwise may go unnoticed." To me, her John Labatt Barley Field sculpture ex- emplifies this philosophy. Its steel-and-copper barley grasses look both organic and unnatural, pretty but imposing. It sparks memories of my childhood, the smell in the air near the brewery, my father, how much this area has changed, and much more. That is, it does what art is supposed to do: elicits a response. "It's a fairly new thing, public art, here in Water- loo, and it takes a while for a public art piece to work its way into the fabric of a society," Buyers said. "And I think it's quite good what Waterloo has been doing with public art." I think so, too. Especial- ly amid an unprecedented and difficult year, I'm glad every time I happen upon a work out there in the world. When you slow down to look, it's amazing how much is out there. Marshall Ward is a freelance writer and artist. Check out his award-win- ning podcast "Bonn Park" with Sara Geidlinger on Apple Podcasts, Instagram and Twitter @bonnpark- podcast and Facebook- : Bonn Park Podcast. OPINION JOHN LABATT BARLEY FIELD SCULPTURE SPARKS MEMORIES PUBLIC ART ENGAGES THE EMOTION AND INTELLECT IN EVERYDAY PLACES, WRITES MARSHALL WARD MARSHALL WARD Column The John Labatt Barley Field sculpture by artist Jane Buyers. Marshall Ward photo