Make Way for Ducklings ( 1987 )
Boston Public Gardens Nancy Schön, Sculptor Bronze / Stone
This Sculpture has been placed here as a tribute to Robert McCloskey whose story “Make Way for Ducklings” has made the Boston Public Garden familiar to children through out the world. (1987)
Taken from the Bronze
Make Way for Ducklings, a children’s book written by Robert McCloskey in 1941, won the Caldecott Medal (an award given annually for outstanding juvenile literature) in 1942. It quickly became a classic, going through seventeen printings and selling more than 700,000 copies. With his own drawings, McCloskey relates the tale of a pair of mallard ducks looking for a nesting site in Boston. They find the perfect place on an island in the Charles River Basin, but they remember the peanuts fed them by visitors to the Public Garden. When the ducklings are old enough, Mrs. Mallard and her progeny take a stroll up sidewalks and through traffic. One of Boston’s newer traditions is a children’s parade retracing the ducklings’ route on Duckling Day (Mothers Day).
Requests for replicas in other cities have been turned down by the sculptor because ‘it’s a Boston story.’ She made exception when Russian First Lady Raisa Gorbachev asked her American counterpart Barbara Bush for a duplicate for Moscow; in 1991 a duck family was installed in Gorky Park.
Dedicated in the 150th anniversary year of the Public Garden, the sculpture is considered a tribute to McCloskey, whose drawings the sculptor followed closely. Given to the City of Boston by Friends of the Public Garden.
Boston Public Gardens Nancy Schön, Sculptor Bronze / Stone
This Sculpture has been placed here as a tribute to Robert McCloskey whose story “Make Way for Ducklings” has made the Boston Public Garden familiar to children through out the world. (1987)
Taken from the Bronze
Make Way for Ducklings, a children’s book written by Robert McCloskey in 1941, won the Caldecott Medal (an award given annually for outstanding juvenile literature) in 1942. It quickly became a classic, going through seventeen printings and selling more than 700,000 copies. With his own drawings, McCloskey relates the tale of a pair of mallard ducks looking for a nesting site in Boston. They find the perfect place on an island in the Charles River Basin, but they remember the peanuts fed them by visitors to the Public Garden. When the ducklings are old enough, Mrs. Mallard and her progeny take a stroll up sidewalks and through traffic. One of Boston’s newer traditions is a children’s parade retracing the ducklings’ route on Duckling Day (Mothers Day).
Requests for replicas in other cities have been turned down by the sculptor because ‘it’s a Boston story.’ She made exception when Russian First Lady Raisa Gorbachev asked her American counterpart Barbara Bush for a duplicate for Moscow; in 1991 a duck family was installed in Gorky Park.
Dedicated in the 150th anniversary year of the Public Garden, the sculpture is considered a tribute to McCloskey, whose drawings the sculptor followed closely. Given to the City of Boston by Friends of the Public Garden.
Nancy Schön (born 1928) is a renowned sculptor of public art displayed internationally. Nancy prides herself in
having work that is totally interactive. Her sculptures are available for people to touch, sit on, hug and interact with every
day of the year, day or night.
Another major work by Nancy Schön’s besides Make Way for Ducklings is The Tortoise and Hare, which is a meta- phor for the Boston Marathon and is located at the finish line in Copley Square.
As Nancy creates a work of art, her research is a quest for knowledge and of understanding issues and of learning, including her philosophy of “reflection in action”. “We learn so much from our inquiry but as my husband said, ‘we know more than we can say’ and I would always say back to him that I think our unconscious is brilliant!”
"Boston Bronze and Stone Speak To Us" can be purchased at the following locations: Faneuil Hall Book Store, Old North Church Gift Store, Bestsellers Bookstore Cafe, USS Constitution Museum Gift Sore, Museum Of Science Gift Store, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble Book Stores.
Another major work by Nancy Schön’s besides Make Way for Ducklings is The Tortoise and Hare, which is a meta- phor for the Boston Marathon and is located at the finish line in Copley Square.
As Nancy creates a work of art, her research is a quest for knowledge and of understanding issues and of learning, including her philosophy of “reflection in action”. “We learn so much from our inquiry but as my husband said, ‘we know more than we can say’ and I would always say back to him that I think our unconscious is brilliant!”
"Boston Bronze and Stone Speak To Us" can be purchased at the following locations: Faneuil Hall Book Store, Old North Church Gift Store, Bestsellers Bookstore Cafe, USS Constitution Museum Gift Sore, Museum Of Science Gift Store, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble Book Stores.
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