Friends of Cedar Crest, a nonprofit fund-raising group dedicated to the preservation, restoration and enhancement of the governor’s mansion in Topeka, has commissioned Lawrence artist Jim Brothers to design and create a life-size bronze sculpture.

“I’m working on it right now,” Brothers said. “I’m way behind, but that’s nothing new. It’s going to be a good piece.”

The piece, depicting a young boy and girl climbing a split-rail fence, will be Cedar Crest’s first outdoor sculpture.

Gov. Bill Graves’ 6-year-old daughter, Katie, posed for the sculpture, as did Samuel Bear, son of Jamison and Raelene Bear, rural Lawrence. Bear, 8, is Osage Indian.

“He’s perfect,” Brothers said. “His parents happen to be our neighbors.”

When it’s finished, the sculpture’s subjects are expected to bear only a slight resemblance to Katie and Samuel.

“There will be a resemblance because they’re in the photographs Jim is using as a reference, but it’s not intended to be a portrait,” said Kathy Correll, who manages Brothers’ studio.

Correll said Brothers got the idea for the sculpture after seeing a photograph of Katie, posing by the split-rail fence that surrounds Cedar Crest.

The children in the sculpture will be reaching and leaning forward, looking in the distance.

“Their gazing into the distance is supposed to symbolize their looking, reaching to the future,” Correll said. “And their climbing and reaching will symbolize Kansans’ reaching beyond limitations and surmounting difficulties that should not be seen as barriers but as opportunities.”

Plans call for installing the 6-foot-tall sculpture on the west side of the mansion.

“We are very excited about this,” said Jennie Rose, chief of staff at Cedar Crest.

“When it was decided that it would be appropriate to add an outdoor sculpture, it was also decided that Jim Brothers would be the appropriate sculptor,” Rose said.

Brothers is nationally known for creating a series of larger-than-life bronze sculptures for the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Va. He’s also working on a 8-foot-tall statute of former president Dwight Eisenhower for display in the Hall of Statues at the U.S. Capitol Building.

Plans calls for the Cedar Crest statute being unveiled during a Sept. 19 meeting of the Friends of Cedar Crest governing board.

About 500 people tour Cedar Crest each week. The mansion was built by Topeka newspaper publisher Frank P. MacLennan in 1928.

MacLennan’s widow, Madge Overstreet MacLennan, donated the 244-acre estate to the state in 1955.