In 1997 I negotiated Ulrich Rückriem his first major commission in Bury (and the UK). Around the same time, I attended Ulrich's remarkable colour drawing exhibition at the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, and there met Alan Johnston, who coincidentally was showing his drawings at the Clonegal Barn in the wilds of County Carlow. It was clear to me that Alan was someone whose work should be shown, commissioned and collected by Bury and the Irwell Sculpture Trail. Slow forward for me fast forward for you: 2007. As if mirroring the Northern Mirror, ten years have passed and finally the Irwell Sculpture Trail has an Alan Johnston work, fittingly within a few hundred yards of the original Rückriem installation. The coincidence of Alan's practice with the Bury curatorial vision continues: working with some of the most significant artists and writers creating at the beginning of the 21st Century, Bury has sought to archive, commission and collect gallery-based work in parallel to each artist's public art intervention. And an integral part of Alan's response to the unique Bury context has been a parallel series of paintings which he has installed the Art Gallery in tandem with the completion of his sculpture. In 1901 Bury Art Gallery opened to house a bequest collection of works by Turner, Constable and other artists of that time; in 2101 Bury Art Gallery will house the work of Turner, Constable, and other artists of the 19th Century and Rückriem, Weiner, Johnston, Nannucci and other artists of the 21st Century. In our absence, our presence will have meant something.