Oliver O'Connor Barrett (January 17, 1908 in Eltham, London, England – July 1989 in Cwm Prysor, Trawsfynydd, Wales) was a British sculptor, painter, graphic artist, educator, poet and composer. Most of his adult career and recognition was in the United States. Life and art career Oliver O'Connor Barrett studied at Fircroft College in England but was largely self-taught as a sculptor. In 1933 Barrett exhibited at the Royal Academy. In 1937-38 he carved a panel, The Temptation of St. Anthony and fifteen keystones for a block of flats, called Viceroy Close, in Edgbaston, Birmingham. The work was designed and executed in the almost cartoonish manner that was to become one of the several styles that Barrett was comfortable in. In 1940 he moved to the United States where he settled with his family in New York City. In 1942 he exhibited at the New Orleans Art Center, in 1945 at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and in 1946, 1948 and 1950 at Audubon Artists. Barrett was one of the sculptors who exhibited at the 3rd Sculpture International, sponsored by the Fairmount Park Art Association and held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1949. Sculpture Continuum In 1962, as the 1964 New York World's Fair was being planned, Barrett was commissioned to create the Sculpture Continuum Playground. In his book Myself Emerging it states that the "CONTINUUM principle was invented and patented by Barrett in America. Other designs based on the principle are available, adapted to various environmental situations." It is unclear as to what became of the playground following the end of the fair in 1965. Regarding this work, Barrett quotes a letter from the eminent art historian Herbert Read in which Read states, "You have given a new spacial development to the Art of sculpture." The Sculpture Continuum playground was disassembled and stored for a while under the Van Wyck Expressway after the World's Fair closed in 1965, next to the disassembled World's Fair Pavilion (a geodesic dome). Eventually the dome was reassembled nearby and now serves as the Bird Aviary for the Queens Zoo. The Sculpture Continuum was acquired by Long Island's Valley Stream Union Free School District (District 13), where it was installed as playground equipment at Willow Road Elementary. After many years of outdoor use, it was moved into storage by the school district. Eventually at least three of the best pieces, including