Former mayor loans sculpture celebrating joy of reading for display at Balboa Branch Library

A former mayor of Newport Beach who acquired a sculpture celebrating the joy of reading agreed to loan it last week for display at the city’s Balboa Branch Library once the remodel of the public building is complete.

“A Novel Idea” is one of a series of concrete benches that resemble a pile of books created by Craig Gray. The binding of the tome-shaped block that serves as its seat bears the title and surname “The Grapes of Wrath — Steinbeck.” One of its legs is a representation of C.S. Lewis’s “The Chronicles of Narnia.” Other referenced in the piece include “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen, “The Old Man and the Sea” by Ernest Hemingway and “The Art of Body Surfing” by Judge Robert Gardner.

The piece had previously been on display at the Newport Beach Civic Center Park. It later came into the possession of former Mayor Nancy Gardner.

She offered to loan it to the city for a period of 20 years. The City Council unanimously agreed to accept her offer as part of the consent calendar at their meeting Tuesday, Nov. 19.

“In the last eight years that I’ve been on council, this was one of my favorite pieces,” current Mayor Will O’Neill said. “...And the fact that this one is being preserved with the idea of putting it over at the library on Balboa is really cool, and it’s one that I really look forward to seeing. So, I just wanted to say thank you.”

Officials plan on placing the sculpture in the renovated library’s entry plaza. The city plans to break ground on that building as well as an adjacent fire station in 2025. Those facilities were built in 1929 and 1962, respectively.

The Balboa Branch Library was built in the 1920s and is scheduled for replacement in 2025.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)