It was a window display of UV light glowing through plastic during a stroll in Sydney, Australia, 34 years ago that caught the eye of Bruce Munro. The British fine arts major walked into the shop, made some inquiries, and was soon knocking on retailers’ doors to sell his own illuminated set designs in between his regular jobs as a bricklayer and painter.
inspired to create a light installation in one of the valleys on the property.”
Creativity meets sustainabili-
ty
‘Everything we do is connected to one another and the world around us.’ Artist Bruce Munro
“Sensorio will cover about 35 acres,” Ken said, referring to his future development project due for completion in 2021. Constructed in phases, Decades later, Bruce’s work has been displayed the project will include a hotel, conference center, in galleries, parks, estates, cathedrals, botanical café, a botanical garden and more. “The planned architecture is playful and full gardens and museums across the United States of movement. It will be a completely creative, and worldwide, including the Guggenheim flowing design,” Ken said. “We love nature and Museum in New York City, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Texas Tech Uni- all it entails. My dad built the Hunter Ranch versity Public Art Collection, and in exhibits in Golf Course and always loved the land across the street. After he passed in 2000, we were able Denmark, UAE, South Korea and Australia. For Paso Robles developer Ken Hunter, it was to acquire that land in 2011, enabling our dream at a 2,831-foot-high sandstone formation known to continue.” Twenty volunteers worked an average of eight as Uluru in the central Australian outback that he and his wife first experienced Munro’s “Field hours per day over five weeks to assemble the tens of thousands of spheres and position them of Light” display. “We are a couple who have had a dream of across the valley landscape. An Earth-friendly bringing an entertaining, natural garden-like project, Sensorio uses energy supplied by solar attraction to Central California for many years. panels that charge by day to power an awe-inWe have a plan to bring something complete- spiring display from dusk to 11 p.m. ly unique to this particularly beautiful property, which we have named Sensorio,” Ken said. “We were able to visit with Bruce at one of his exhibit openings in Denver and invited him to Paso Robles to see the land, where he was
20 | The Story of Us
A total of 240 projectors operating at 25 watts apiece serve as light sources for several hundred fibers dispersed in shallow arrays laid atop the grounds. As light pulses through the fibers, it’s captured inside the glass spheres, creating what Bruce calls “whispers of light.”
“We love and admire Bruce’s design sensitivity to nature, peace, and calm, which you will feel when you experience his exhibit,” Ken added. The meditative 15-acre art installation is the artist’s largest site-specific project to date.
June 2019