Artist Heather Johnson created our sculpture, Equipoise, to help inspire and educate the curious observer of nature. The concept, and the sculpture itself, incorporates many important aspects of nature and education essential to the Highlands Center mission. The sculpture also represents our special hands-on method of teaching about science and the natural world.  It invites people to touch it, feel it, walk around it, investigate all its parts, and then to wonder about it. Children can discover hidden insects among the spiraling manzanita branches.

Through the playful composition of plants and animals of the Central Arizona Highlands represented in this sculpture, visitors can learn about the interconnectedness, balance, and dynamism of ecological systems and relationships between the living and nonliving world.