CAMBRIDGE - Stroll down by the Grand River in old Galt and you're as likely to wander into outdoor artwork as you are to meet someone fishing.

Since 2001, the Cambridge Sculpture Garden has offered a peaceful place to pause and ponder in a world that only seems to be spinning faster.

"It's secluded and quiet," said Judy Welsh, who first proposed the art- in-a-park in 1998.

"That's why all the signage and markings, you have to look for them. They're hidden."

Volunteers talk of people stumbling into the garden along riverside trails, stopping for long minutes at a sculpture. Shoppers from Southworks Outlet Mall nearby wander over.

Or regulars pick up their orders of fish and chips at Barnacle Bill's next door, pour on the malt vinegar, then pick a favoured spot to sit and munch lunch.

Judy Major-Girardin is an art teacher at McMaster University and an eager volunteer in the garden.

She brings her students there and says professional artists ask to display works there; its one of few such places in Ontario.

Most people in Cambridge's ticky-tacky suburbia, however, seem oblivious to what's along the river.

"I think it's off the radar. It's something people in the downtown know about . . . It's a diamond in the rough."

Welsh hatched the idea for a sculpture garden in 1998. A landscape designer by profession, she eyed the vacant riverside land, her mind full of ideas to make something of it.

The Grand River Conservation Authority bought the land in 1974, as part of flood works after Galt was inundated in 1974. It had grass and three trees, but little else of note.

Welsh arranged for a 22-year lease of the land in 2000 and set to work with a committee to scratch up grants.

All tolled $120,000 has been spent on improvements and exhibitions.

No money comes to run the park or promote it, so volunteers pay for envelopes, plants and printer ink out of their own pockets.

City crews cut the grass, but it's up to volunteers to do the rest.

"It's just a small park, but there's lot of weeds. They never go away." Welsh said.

Along with permanent works, volunteers also bring in temporary exhibitions. Another opens Sunday at 6 p.m., with a strawberry social, kids activities and a concert by Glen Souluis.

Last year, Welsh fought the idea of razing the garden to make way for a 600-seat Drayton theatre. Her bet is now the $17-million complex will go across Grand Avenue -- so the two complement each other when tens of thousands of visitors drop by.

Talk of bringing a travelling version of the Venice Biennale architecture show to the area is a logical expansion of the cluster of galleries Major-Girardin sees growing along the river.

"That's a huge project, but this is an area where you can drop huge projects in," she said.

Learn more about the garden at cambridgesculpturegarden.ca.

kswayze@cambridgereporter.com