Metal Wall Art Outdoors: Story Circles Win Nillumbik Shire Preschool Commission

Intergenerational History

The sculpture beautifully honors the multi-generational history of the preschool, celebrating the fact that today’s children are attending the same school their parents once did.

“For this piece I had a workshop with the kids, some mums and some teachers. We painted their feet and had them step onto paper, then selected some children’s footprints and some grownup footprints. Then our designers Emma and Chris from Cordial Creative scanned them into the computer, increasing and decreasing the size so at the bottom of the circle they would start as small child’s prints, gradually increasing in size to adult footprints at the top. They would then get smaller as they completed the circle.

Digital files were created for the footprints to be laser cut from stainless steel.

As part of the workshop the kids did drawings of their families, pets, homes, nature or anything that they wanted. We picked some out and projected them onto the floor in the studio to the correct scale. We then drew over them in texta to recreate the drawings in steel, exactly as drawn by the kids.

No children’s, parents or teacher names were recorded during this process, the idea being that anyone involved would take ownership and believe they were their footprints or drawings. Believe me if you hang around the artwork listening to conversations, individuals are completely convinced what footprints and drawings belong to them!”

Respect for our First Nations people

To acknowledge the First Nations People in this artwork, we used the same wording that the kids and educators used in their Acknowledgment of Country.

The words spiral in around a gum tree branch, adorned with hand-cut steel leaves alongside handmade, hand-glazed and fired glass leaves and gum flowers by glass guru Rob Hayley.

A sense of ourselves

In a crazy world where our worth and impression of ourselves can be dictated by overexposure to online influences, it’s more important than ever for children to develop their sense of self and others from an early age.

This piece is positioned at the kids’ eye level and features a polished stainless steel mirror, allowing them to see themselves or play with their friends in front of it.

A strong connection to nature

We all know how good it is for us to be out of the house and into nature. That’s where the real adventures are!

Bees and honeycomb from reclaimed steel and handmade English light glass bring this piece alive to encourage and welcome the kids outside.

Movement and Music

Children love trying things for themselves. The figures in this piece dance and spin when the handle is turned.

“The last piece in this five-piece sculpture was my favorite to make. We knew we wanted movement and interaction and the blacksmith, sculptor and friend Paul Cacioli loves creating moving sculptures so he was eager to get involved.

We sculpted this piece together purely by walking through the boneyard and dragging whatever we thought may work back to the studio. This project allowed for the most creativity and fluidity as it contains a lot of reclaimed material. It definitely took the most time but it was so enjoyable that time didn’t matter.

Paul is brilliant to work with and I’m looking forward to our next project together although between us, we have way too many ideas!

I’m especially proud of ‘Tread Gently Together’ and how well it’s been received by the Diamond Hill Preschool community. A big thank you to all involved in the design and creation of this work, I couldn’t have done it without you.” – Tim Read, Tread Sculptures.

The $4.5 million preschool was officially opened by Colin Brooks, the State Member for Bundoora and Minister for Development Victoria, Precincts and Creative Industries in August 2024. The preschool has more than doubled in size with two classrooms allowing for the increase in three and four-year-old kinder places for local children.