A group of 1972 Leamington District Secondary School (LDSS) graduates are spearheading a plan to have the sculpture that once adorned the old LDSS building restored.
The sculpture, titled ‘Learning and Nature’, was carved from limestone by soon-to-be renowned sculptor E.B. Cox in 1952.
According to journalist Larry Cornies, who is part of that group of grads coming to the rescue of the artwork, the sculpture just about didn’t make it by the chopping block when the old school was built.
“It turns out the sculpture was commissioned by the Leamington High School Board in the early 1950s, ahead of the opening of the new LDSS on Talbot Street in 1953,” Cornies wrote in a recent newsletter. “Fueled by a kind of post-war optimism, the board had grandiose plans for their new school, including a swimming pool, a rifle range, electric-powered bleachers in the gymnasium and a work of public art. Most of those frills were eventually eliminated as too costly — but the sculpture somehow escaped the chopping block.”
E.B. Cox’s work includes carving the gravestones of members of the Group of Seven, whom he counted as his friends.
His work in Leamington at the time sort of went unnoticed, and many kids who walked through those doors over a 64-year span often didn’t give it a second thought, but all can remember it well.
When the new LDSS building was completed on Oak Street in 2017, the contractors moved the sculpture to adorn the front of the new school. It was an honourable gesture, preserving such a piece of art for the new generation of students to admire.
However, moving it would be a task that required them to cut the sculpture into pieces and that — accompanied by the usual wear-and-tear cracks and chips — has the attention of the former students, who would like to see it restored.
A reunion dinner at Cured Craft Brewing Company on Wednesday, October 22, followed by a breakfast meeting the next morning at Lakeside Bakery, found several former students in attendance to talk about what they can do to help the Greater Essex County District School Board launch a restoration campaign.
“It should be regarded as an important piece of Canadian art — and treated as such,” said Cornies. “Although the relocation of the sculpture to the new Oak Street school was successful, some damage was inflicted on the piece by virtue of its dismantling and reassembly.”
Cornies was quick to point out that the group’s plan to restore the statue was in no way accusatory toward GECDSB and they hope to be able to work with the board on restoration efforts in the future.
EB Cox works on the sculpture in 1952 from a book titled E.B. Cox: A Life in Sculpture.
