A beloved figure with a literary past will soon find a permanent home in the public eye, as a bronze sculpture titled The Reader is donated to the City of Hillsboro and will be installed outside the Hillsboro Public Library Brookwood location.
Plans for the donation took shape in the summer of 2025, when Barbara Swanson Sanders expressed her wish to place the sculpture at a Hillsboro library. Through connections with the Hillsboro Library Foundation and its president, Debbie Clarke, as well as coordination with City of Hillsboro Public Art Supervisor Karl LaClair, the idea gained momentum and ultimately became reality.
The sculpture is a gift from Barbara Swanson Sanders, a retired teacher, librarian, and longtime member of the Hillsboro community whose life has been shaped by a deep commitment to literacy and education. Her donation represents not only a contribution to the city’s growing public art collection, but also a personal full-circle moment—bringing a symbol of her life’s work back to the community where it began.
Swanson Sanders’ connection to Hillsboro stretches back decades. In 1971, she taught kindergarten at W.V. McKinney Elementary School when it first opened. A few years later, she pursued her Master of Library Science at the University of Oregon, graduating in 1977.
By 1979, she became the first librarian at Minter Bridge Elementary School, where she built the library’s collection from the ground up — an experience she has described as both challenging and deeply rewarding.
Her passion for books eventually led her beyond the classroom. In 1988, Swanson Sanders opened the Catalyst Book Store in Portland, an independent shop that became a cherished destination on Northwest 23rd Avenue. Originally a general-interest bookstore, Catalyst evolved in the 1990s to focus on children’s literature and early childhood education, carving out a niche during a time when national retail chains were rapidly expanding.
It was during her years at Catalyst that Swanson Sanders commissioned the bronze sculpture from artist Bill Bane. The piece, created in 1990, depicts a seated figure absorbed in a book — a quiet, intimate portrayal of the reading experience. Cast in bronze and measuring approximately 42 inches high and 30 inches in diameter, the sculpture rests on a square base and is marked as the first of five castings.
At the bookstore, The Reader became more than décor—it was a presence. Positioned near the entrance, the sculpture greeted customers as they arrived, embodying the spirit of the shop. Visitors developed their own traditions around it, often rubbing the figure’s foot for good luck, gradually polishing the bronze to a bright sheen. Swanson Sanders herself continued the ritual nightly, calling it “a symbol of hope for tomorrow and more readers to visit the store.”
When the bookstore closed in 2002, the sculpture moved with her, spending more than two decades in her garden, quietly overlooking the neighborhood. Now, it is set to begin a new chapter.
The Brookwood Library site was selected in part because it currently lacks exterior public art, making it an ideal location for a piece that aligns so naturally with the library’s mission. The sculpture will be installed atop a large basalt boulder near the entrance, where it will welcome visitors and serve as a visual reminder of the joy and importance of reading. City officials note that the addition is particularly meaningful given that the public art collection does not yet include bronze works, making The Reader both a thematic and material complement to existing pieces.
For Swanson Sanders, the installation is rich with personal significance. She reflects on the possibility that some of the patrons who encounter the sculpture may once have been her students—or the children of those she taught—linking generations through a shared love of books.
The project has been supported by a collaborative effort involving local leaders and specialists, including generous support from the Hillsboro Library Foundation, Hillsboro Parks Maintenance, object conservator Robert Krueger of the Cascadia Art Conservation Center, and others who helped bring Swanson Sander’s vision to life.
Once installed, The Reader will stand as more than a sculpture. It will be a storyteller in its own right — quietly honoring a lifetime dedicated to education, community, and the simple, enduring act of opening a book.
