Coming to a Library near you in Autumn 2025!

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Landscapes of the Imagination is a swirling cloud of stories floating up into the atrium of Inspire, Airdrie’s new Multi-Use and Library Facility. Drawing from the folklore, fantasy, and fiction that feeds our imagination, miniature scenes rise inside each bubble, determined in collaboration with the community. Local people are invited to share their favourite books and stories, and their tales will co-create this whimsical installation as a solid manifestation of our collective imagination.

This work was inspired by the library. A vast majority of Inspire will be dedicated to the new Airdrie Public Library (53,000 of 73,000 square feet).

Libraries are often the first place that children – and many adults – learn to dream, to see possibilities beyond their own experience.

Airdrie is the fastest growing city in Alberta. While the new facility will help address the practical needs of the community, we designed Landscapes of the Imagination to nourish the conceptual needs a community experiencing rapid growth, to help fuel the leap of imagination required to undergo great change.

Dozens of floating spheres will rise up into the atrium. Inside each sphere is an intricately detailed domed scene, carefully rendered in paper-white and earth tones.

Miniature castles, tiny forests, alien planets, hot air balloons, little cities, and other landscapes will be housed inside. The domes are cradled by shiny brass dishes, holding the weight of each acrylic bubble.

The bubbles will be connected by loops of fine brass chain – like an organic root system dangling beneath each whimsical world – joining them together in a glittering web.

Visitors entering the building will be greeted by a complex, intricate, and fantastical installation, rising in a swirl of bubbles, glittering chain, and crystals sparkling overhead.

As they explore, the artwork will reveal itself slowly, encouraging an ongoing re-discovery of the space, and inviting investigation from multiple perspectives. This is an enduring artwork, full of secrets, intended to inspire curiosity for years to come.

Most of the scenes inside the spheres will be imaginary landscapes, artfully re-created from different community member’s description of their favourite storybook: Harry Potter, One Thousand and One Nights, James & The Giant Peach… each story has a distinct landscape to depict. However, hidden between fictional worlds will be familiar landmarks from Airdrie’s past and present.

Curious viewers may recognize historic grain elevators, a caboose, train tracks, a water tower, and other local scenes. Imaginary and literal landscapes entwine, illustrating the relationship between where we’ve been, where we are, and the places we imagine.