WATCH: Brighton sculpture park a labour of love

It’s a relationship that has spanned 25 years and changed two lives forever.

Meet Bon Suter, master sculptor, art teacher, South Brighton stalwart and creator of the South Brighton Sculpture Park.

The Park, well known by Christchurch locals, has been a labour of love spawned from a decision 25 years ago to begin teaching one very special student.

While working at her Ferry Road Art Gallery, Bon was approached to teach Donald Gibson. He was blind, deaf and unable to talk, and wanted to learn sculpting.

They began working with clay but as stone became fashionable, they gave it a go and it clicked for Donald.

“The stone was just so much better for Donald.

“But I needed a space for him to work in and have our stone. Being a farm girl from Akaroa I looked around at all this beautiful space and land at South Brighton and just thought there must be a way we can use this.

“I went to a few Council meetings and asked what we could do. The response was so so. Then I took Donald to one of the meetings and they saw what I was trying to achieve and agreed to give it a try.”

The Council agreed to give Bon a permit to use the land. She set about planting native plants, landscaping and “made it as beautiful as I could” – now more than 20 years old, the permit remains and the sculpture park has become a permanent fixture on the South Brighton landscape.

“For Donald, it has meant so much for him in his life. Now he’s proud. He’s not a nothing, or a nobody. He’s a wonderful sculptor,” Bon says.

Donald Gibson works on one of his sculptures.

The garden now contains around 25 sculptures – some are Bons, some Donalds, and others have been collected from fellow artists over the years. Nestled in the sand dunes on the side of Marine Parade, the garden is open to the public and anyone can wander through at any time.

“I work with Donald three days a week and I encourage others to come and work with Donald because he doesn’t like to feel alone. So we have a number of people come – some with brain injuries and other types of disability.

“I guess I have been a huge part of his life. This garden has been a huge part of his life. I’ve got a dream of taking him to Hawaii and doing some limestone sculpting over there. We are working on it – I have most of the details in place. A film crew will be coming from Europe to film him and we’ve got some limestone heading over there so he can do some sculpting. We just need to raise a little more money before we can get there. We’re going to make it happen.”

Find out more on Bon Suter.