Standing between Fullerton Public Library’s Main Branch and City Hall, artist Aldo Casanova’s Flight, the first piece of public art in Fullerton, is now flying toward local landmark status as it celebrates fifty years in the community. I was one of over forty people who attended the city’s commemoration ceremony for Fullerton’s Bicentennial sculpture on July 10, 2026.
Flight’s 50th anniversary celebration was held underneath a sweltering summer sun. Many of the red, white and blue balloon displays that city staff had set up at the beginning and the end of the walkway, which passes directly by the piece of public art, were popping, sounding like fireworks. Quite a few local residents, Fullerton Public Library Trustees and library and city staff who attended were gathering in the shade of City Hall.
As people waited, they had a chance to view a few historical artifacts, including photographs, books and displays about the sculpture, which had all been preserved and taken out of the Fullerton Public Library’s Local History Room by archivist Cheri Pape. There were also light refreshments provided by Porto’s Bakery. Around 10 am, once everyone had arrived, Anita O’Keefe Torres, Director of the Fullerton Public Library, Sueling Chen, Chair of the Fullerton Public Library Board of Trustees, and Ernie Kelsey, Fullerton Heritage President, delivered short speeches to start the commemoration ceremony.
O’Keefe Torres said, “As you all know, I’m new to the area, so I’m also new to the Flightsculpture, and as people were explaining the sculpture to me, I heard many different interpretations of what it might be. I heard a paper airplane. I heard a checkmark. I heard a book as it is being opened…and what I came away with is that I think that’s what art does; it helps your imagination take flight.”
She soon introduced Sueling Chen from the Library’s Board of Trustees, who wanted attendees to imagine back to 1976 when the nation was celebrating its Bicentennial. Chen said, “Here in Fullerton, we had a group of visionary citizens who asked one question: what can we create today that will inspire people fifty years from now?… Florence Arnold was the Chair of the Bicentennial Committee and spearheaded the whole project. And you know what the answer was? It’s not a parade; it’s not fireworks…the answer was a dream cast in a zinc and steel post, and that’s what we call Flight.”…