Marie Khouri sculpture graces new Kay Meek Arts Centre’s Faris Family Courtyard
The public artwork made of Italian marble honours late arts philanthropist Yulanda Faris
Marie Khouri’s Sit With Me, Share With Me. Photo by Shirley Claire Williams
A new work of public art by internationally recognized sculptor Marie Khouri is now in place at the new Faris Family Courtyard at the Kay Meek Arts Centre in West Vancouver.
The Egypt-born Vancouver-based artist was commissioned to create Sit With Me, Share With Me in honour of the late Yulanda Faris, who was a benefactor of the local arts and culture scene.
The new courtyard reflects Reema Faris’s donation to the Kay Meek Arts Centre’s 2018 capital campaign, which addressed accessibility and other structural issues and upgrades to the 15-year-old facility. A priority was the improvement of exterior spaces, pathways, and landscaping.
Khouri has incorporated the Arabic letter Y in the arts philanthropist’s honour into two undulating bench structures. The piece sits in the middle of the re-landscaped courtyard in front of the lobby of the West Vancouver arts centre.
“I’m thrilled to see Marie’s sculpture in place,” Reema Faris said at the courtyard’s recent opening. “It means so much to me to have such a beautiful commemoration of my mother’s spirit captured in this way and placed here for everyone to savour and appreciate.”
Just prior to the event, French government awarded its Chevalier de l'ordre national du mérite to Khouri. In her submission to the arts centre, which held a juried competition to commission its first public artwork, Khouri imagined “Kay Meek and Yulanda Faris enjoying each other’s company, sitting across from each other conversing about the future of culture in our community”.
The Faris Family Courtyard at the Kay Meek Centre for the Arts is now open to the public.
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