An enthusiastic crowd of library supporters, Garden Club members and neighbors gathered Saturday afternoon at the Palisades Branch Library, eager to see the new sculpture unveiled in the library’s patio courtyard. Commissioned by longtime Palisadian Harry Sondheim for his late wife, Branka, the sculpture by Los Angeles artist Peter Shire is a gift to the city and the community. Councilman Bill Rosendahl and L. A. City Librarian Fontayne Holmes were on hand, along with Tim McGowan from the L.A. Department of Cultural Affairs and Palisades Senior Librarian Janet Gass. Sondheim, a former chairman of the Palisades Community Council who has two sculptures in his own yard, said that Shire’s colorful tile and steel free-standing piece represents aspects of Branka’s life: her love of books, baking, boogie boarding, family and friends. Shire even incorporated Branka’s word of endearment’bussi, which means kiss in Austria. The artist suggested that the sculpture really is like a book that contains her knowledge and her story, with a beginning and an end.
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