The City of Santa Clarita unveiled the new “Imag_ne” public art sculpture by Australian artist Emma Ann in front of the Valencia Library on Wednesday.

The new art installation spells out “Imagine” in oversized Scrabble tiles, with the exception of the second “I” of the word, which was left out to encourage people to fill in the space and complete the word, according to officials.

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Government officials, media and community members gathered Wednesday morning for the unveiling of the new sculpture installation on Valencia Boulevard in front of the Valencia Library.

Representatives for Senator Scott Wilk, Assemblywoman Christy Smith and Assemblyman Tom Lackey, as well as members of the Santa Clarita City Council, were present at the event to celebrate the unveiling.

“It is no coincidence that the sculpture stands in front of the Valencia Library,” said Santa Clarita Mayor Marsha McLean. “In the same way the sculpture creates a blank space for you to physically interact with the art, our libraries are places where you can dive into a limitless world of imagination thanks to free, educational community resources and programs.”

McLean opened the ceremonies by welcoming attendees and giving background on the project before she invited Anna to the podium to speak about her work.

Anna explained how the piece first began as a collage that lived on her desk at the job she held as she was also working towards her master’s degree in public art at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.

“I looked at the collage every day when I would go to the office,” said Anna. “I kind of saw the space as a doorway, and that was the doorway into my future, and that was the doorway I was going to go through, and the missing ‘I’ was me, and somehow going through that doorway, I was going to be introduced to a more creative and rewarding future.”

She went on to detail how the collage inspired her to create the sculpture version of it for a university project.

Her initial versions of the sculpture gained recognition at the “‘Sculpture by the Sea” exhibit in Sydney, which lead to the piece traveling the world as far as places such as Denmark and Florida.

The Santa Clarita edition of the sculpture is the first of its kind in the western United States and the first permanent installation of the piece, according to McLean.

For more information about the piece and other art initiatives or events in Santa Clarita, visit the Santa Clarita Arts website here.

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