While there are already some sculptures at the arboretum, such as the often-photographed Nest III at the top of Dairy Farmers Hill and the striking Wide Brown Land, there are moves afoot to create a trail of sculptures through the 250-hectare site.

A gala fundraising dinner is being held at the arboretum on Friday, September 3 to kick-start the campaign to get more contemporary artworks positioned around what has become one of Canberra's premier tourist attractions.

The Forest Sculpture Gallery, a non-profit entity, will encompass a growing permanent collection of contemporary and 20^th century sculpture, as well as works on long term loan, plus temporary exhibitions and sculpture festivals, all accessible to the public across the landscape of the arboretum.

One of the movers and shakers behind the arboretum in its early days, John Mackay, now patron of the arboretum's friends group and ambassadors program, said sculpture was always hoped to be part of the arboretum.

"There was a view that as we got the tracks and trails in, we would provide for a sculpture trail," he said.

"It might take a while, but there is a plan to have 20 or so sculptures over a couple of years across a trail. Some of those will be permanent and some of those will be temporary."

The Forest Sculpture Gallery is governed by an advisory committee which provides expert vision, advice, comment and support to the gallery to develop the collection. The external curatorial advisor for is Deborah Clark.

Mr Mackay said it was envisaged the expert committee would help choose appropriate pieces and while private fundraising was part of the campaign, and all donations over $2 were tax deductible, there was also a hope that artists would donate their pieces, that would then become tax deductible.

"The real key to it is it took quite a while to get tax deductibility," he said.

"So a sculptor could do a sculpture that was worth $100,000, and we would have it doubly valued to make sure it was worth that. They could donate it and use it as a deduction on their own tax. So it's quite a good thing to do for an artist who wants to display at this iconic site. We're working on a couple already."

Mr Mackay said the sculptures could also be funded through donations, events and other fundraising.

"We're not just going to take any old thing that comes along," he said.

"Some of it will be commissioned, some of it might be art we see in other places and some of it will be donated."

There are five sculptures now in the arboretum -Richard Moffatt's Nest III, Louis Pratt's A Backwards Attitude, Wide Brown Land by Marcus Tatton, Futago Design Studios and Chris Viney, and two kinetic sculptures by Kozo Nishino, Breezing in Canberra and In The Stream.

The Forest Sculpture Gallery fundraising dinner launch will be held on Friday, September 3 at the National Arboretum from 6.30pm to 9pm. Tickets are $150, which includes a donation to the cause. They are available from stickytickets.com.au.

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