Symposium Movement

[abknight@zzzzzz]

Little did I know that International Sculpture Symposia,
which I had always thought of as individual events have
developed in a broader historical context.  In case I am
not the last to know, I am sharing this little blurb with
you:

"The International Sculpture Symposium movement was
spearheaded by Karl Prantl in Austria
This initiative grew from the need to facilitate
communication and exchange between members of the
international sculpture community. It was also rooted in
Cold War.

The Cold War is defined by the US Department of Defense as
lasting from the surrender of Japan on 2 September 1945 to
the dissolution of the Soviet Union on 26 December 1991.
It was the open yet restricted rivalry that developed
after World War II between groups of nations practicing
different ideologies and political systems.
.....   tensions, which lent a particular urgency to the
need for cross-cultural dialogue on a person-to-person
basis. The first international sculpture symposium took
place in an abandoned stone quarry in St. Margarethan,
Austria.

Sculptors from around the world joined together to produce
a permanent public artwork from local stone, a dynamic
which would provide the model for many symposia to follow.

Since then international sculpture symposia have been held
in numerous towns and cities around the world, including
Lindabrunn, Austria and Hagi, Japan."

Bill