ABOUT THE SCULPTURE PARK
First opened to the public in 2008, the 200 acre Jeffrey Rubinoff Sculpture Park is home to a collection of over a hundred of Jeffrey Rubinoff’s sculptures. The Park is situated on a farm purchased by Rubinoff in 1973 for the purpose of the creation and storage of his work. Rubinoff repurposed its barn, originally built in 1889, into a fabrication and casting studio, and worked there from 1980 until his death in 2017.
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After growing terminally frustrated with the vacuousness of the art market, Rubinoff started siting his sculpture at the property permanently in 1998, bolting some of them down to granite slabs. This was when the idea of the farm becoming a permanent display of his life’s work began to take shape, though Rubinoff had already been working with landscaping contractor John Kirk to reshape the land to create display mounds and berms, plant over 1000 trees as well as dig drainage streams and 35 ponds. The Park was finally established with the registration of the Jeffrey Rubinoff Sculpture Park Society in 2005.
In late 2006, Rubinoff began working with Karun Koernig on a programme of activities, beginning with an annual symposium, and planning for regular concerts and openings. In 2007 work began on the interpretive centre. It was designed and built by Hornby Island’s Blue Sky design, who completed the project in 2008. Since then the scope of activities has increased dramatically from summer openings, tours and concerts, to university courses and highschool groups, photography classes, and the annual Forum.
Toward the end of Rubinoff’s life he also endowed a post-doctoral fellowship at Cambridge University, a doctoral scholarship at the University of Victoria, a number of other scholarly awards, and a book publication programme. These are all aimed at strengthening the perception of art as a source of knowledge, a purpose to which Rubinoff he dedicated all of the work of the Jeffrey Rubinoff Sculpture Park. As Rubinoff stated at the outset: “Our purpose is extend the ancient narrative of art and consequently rekindle the historical spirit of modernism. In addition to viewing the work, which includes the Sculpture Park itself, the goal is to revive the interdisciplinary creative impetus of early modernism and to attain the understanding of art as a serious and credible source of special insight for the evolution of ideas.”
About Jeffrey Rubinoff
Jeffrey Rubinoff was born in London, Ontario, in 1945. He studied fine art in the United States and completed his Masters of Fine Arts in 1969. On his return to Canada, he pursued an artistic career in both countries, including solo shows at the (Helen) Mazelow Gallery in Toronto, the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto, the Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park in Chicago, Queen’s Park in Toronto, and York University in Toronto, as well as being shown at Marlborough Gallery and Two Sculptors Gallery in New York.
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In the early 1970s, Rubinoff moved to a 200-acre farm on Hornby Island in British Columbia, living and working on-site for the next four decades where he created the majority of his work. His sculptures range from the human to monumental in scale and are created exclusively from welded or cast, stainless and cor-ten steel. Rubinoff created his sculptures unassisted. His studio included a one-person steel foundry, which made it possible to cast the organic forms found in his later series. In addition to the sculpture, Rubinoff designed many landscape alterations to his property in order to better suit the exhibition of his sculpture.
During the 1990s, Rubinoff’s work was shown in exhibitions with David Smith, Anthony Caro, Alexander Calder, Nancy Graves, Mark di Suvero, Tony Smith, George Rickey, Beverly Pepper, and Robert Murray.
Regarding the dominant art of his time, Rubinoff stated: “For my generation of artists, culture was defined by marketing. The art market defined originality as novelty. I realized that to make original art with artistic depth I would have to return to the lineage of the ancestors—the history of art by artists. So began a dialogue with the ancestors, artist to artist via the work itself.”
"I was born in the shadow of the endgame.
I am an artist.
Art is an act of will in accord with a mature conscience.
There can be no resignation.
The artist is witness to existence itself.
Art is the celebration."
– Jeffrey Rubinoff
An Introduction to the Jeffrey Rubinoff Sculpture Park by Dr. James Fox
Other Information About the Sculpture Park
JRSP featured in Canada wide listing of sculpture parks
Canadian national newspaper, The Globe and Mail, has featured The Jeffrey Rubinoff Sculpture Park among its list of eleven sculpture parks of Canada.
The Sculpture Park Staff
Karun Koernig: Executive Director
Since 2008 Karun has been the manager and curator of the Jeffrey Rubinoff Sculpture Park on Hornby Island, BC, Canada, which displays a large collection of sculptures by the late artist Jeffrey Rubinoff. There he organizes tours, publications, and symposia, in addition to managing public access to the 200-acre parklands.
Before that Karun worked with the United Nations artist ambassador program based in Kenya, planning major public concerts in Rio (Brazil), Shanghai (China), and Istanbul (Turkey). More recently Karun designed a large display unit for exhibition at an international conference in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), which explored the use of the arts within an experimental ‘Youth Peace Laboratory’ in Colombia. Karun Koernig holds a master’s degree in International Relations from Cambridge University, with a specialization in cultural diplomacy and soft power.
Dr. Vid Simoniti: Director of Educational Programmes
Dr. Vid Simoniti is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Liverpool, where he directs the MA in Art, Philosophy and Cultural Institutions. His scholarship explores how artworks generate, challenge, and transform knowledge, with a particular focus on socially engaged practice, conceptual art, and art’s relationship to climate change.
His first monograph, Artists Remake the World, was published by Yale University Press in 2023. In 2021, he was selected as a BBC New Generation Thinker, bringing philosophical ideas about art to broader public audiences. He holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford and previously held the Jeffrey Rubinoff Junior Research Fellowship at Churchill College, Cambridge. He is also co-editor of Art & Knowledge Since 1900 (Manchester University Press, 2023), the foundational volume for the Park’s academic publication series of the same name.
As Director of the JRSP Educational Programme, Dr. Simoniti leads the Park’s mission to establish Art as a Source of Knowledge as a recognized field of scholarly inquiry. His role includes convening the Company of Ideas Forums, editing the Art & Knowledge series with Manchester University Press, and building an educational programme that brings together artists, philosophers, and art historians.
Dr. James Fox: Educational Programme Director Emeritus
Dr. James Fox is a British art historian, BAFTA-nominated broadcaster, and Research Fellow in History of Art at the University of Cambridge, specializing in twentieth-century art. He is also a BBC Arts television presenter, with past programmes including The Art of Japanese Life (2017), Who’s Afraid of Conceptual Art? (2016), and A History of Art in Three Colours (2012). He was selected as one of Apollo Magazine’s “40 Under 40”: the “most talented and inspirational young people who are driving forward the art world today.”
As Educational Programme Director Emeritus, Dr. Fox is recognized for his foundational role in developing the JRSP Educational Programme, including the Company of Ideas Forums, the JRSP Postdoctoral Award Program, and the Park’s major publication series on Art and Knowledge.
John McGillivray: Park Maintenance
John McGillivray lives on neighbouring Denman Island and provides year-round maintenance of the park, lands, buildings, and equipment. He is an avid cyclist, kayak enthusiast, and was a volunteer member of the Denman Fire Department. McGillivray maintains various properties on Hornby and Denman and spent many years driving the Denman school bus. McGillivray holds a BA.
Joy Takefman: Admin Coordinator
Joy brings over two decades of hands-on experience in arts and cultural administration, having served as General Manager of Music in the Morning Concert Society, Special Projects & Events Coordinator and Administrative Assistant with the City & District of North Vancouver, and Volunteer Coordinator with the Vancouver International Children’s Festival. She holds a Bachelor of Arts with Distinction from McGill University, an Arts & Cultural Administration Certificate from Simon Fraser University, and advanced training in special event planning and property management.
Mia Music: Social Media Coordinator
Mia brings experience in arts administration, communications, and design, having worked as Head Media Coordinator with the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, Graphic Designer and Social Media Coordinator with Conservancy Hornby Island, and Editor and Art Director of Fathom, a creative writing journal at Dalhousie University. She holds a BA in English and Creative Writing from Dalhousie University and a Certificate in Graphic Design and Visual Communications from OCAD University.