Cumbria plaque

Item is a plaque for Cumbria, a large-scale outdoor sculpture by Robert Murray. Plaque reads "CUMBRIA, 1968, Robert C. Murray ; Please do not climb, rollerblade or skateboard on sculpture."

Cumbria was first exhibited in 1967 at Toronto's City Hall. It was shown in New York Battery Park in Manhattan, and moved to Vancouver International Airport in 1969. Cumbria generated much public controversy because it departed from traditional sculptural forms. In Vancouver, it was initially to be sited in a prominent place to create a soaring effect but was moved to the median on Grant McConachie Way. Amid busy traffic and beside a gas station, the sculpture could not be properly viewed. By 1993, the airport removed Cumbria with bulldozers, causing irreparable damage, and once again, public controversy. In 1995, with the intervention of artist Toni Onley, Transport Canada agreed to donate the work to UBC and fund its re-fabrication. Cumbria was the first large-scale public sculpture installed at UBC since 1975.