City arts office ends public survey on new Harriet Tubman statue, but won’t release results until October
The five semifinalists will be given an opportunity to incorporate any feedback into their designs prior to making their final presentations to the African American Historic Statue Advisory Committee.
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Creative Philly, the city cultural arts office overseeing plans for a permanent Harriet Tubman statue, is tallying results of a public survey in which residents were able to rank their choices among designs proposed by five semifinalist artists.
The deadline to comment on the survey was Sept. 5. More than 2,800 people responded to the survey that was available on the Creative Philly website from Aug. 4 through 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 5.
But a spokesperson for the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, Creative Philly’s official name, said the results will first be given to the five semifinalists and the city’s African American Historic Statue Advisory Committee. They will not be released to the public until October.
Maisha Sullivan-Ongoza, a member of an artisans collective and cofounder of the Celebrating the Legacy of Nana Harriet Tubman Committee, criticized the decision to withhold the survey results from the public.
She said Thursday that the city’s process for acquiring a Tubman statue “has been wrong from the beginning.”
“They have just lacked transparency so that people can see for themselves and make their own determination.”
Sullivan-Ongoza was a founding member of the Harriet Tubman committee that formed last year after the city announced it was going to award a $500,000 commission to Wesley Wofford, a North Carolina-based sculptor.
Wofford brought a traveling version of his Journey to Freedom statue to Philadelphia between January and March 2022 in honor of Tubman’s 200th birthday.
“They have just lacked transparency so that people can see for themselves and make their own determination.”
At first, city officials wanted to buy Wofford’s traveling statue, which he has taken to 17 other cities so far.
But Wofford told them he could not sell the traveling statue, a smaller, artist’s proof of an original statue he had designed for a private collector.
Instead, the city suggested he create a permanent Tubman statue and was set to award him a commission.
However, Sullivan-Ongoza and members of the Tubman committee objected to spending public funds without an open-call process so other artists could compete. They also said it was important that Black artists have an opportunity to design a statue of an iconic Black American woman.
The committee began a public campaign of petitions, letters to politicians, and appearances on radio talk shows to demand that the city reverse its decision. The city did change course and announced the new open-call process last August.
A year later, at a virtual public meeting, Creative Philly revealed the five designs by the semifinalist artists: Vinnie Bagwell, Richard Blake, Tanda Francis, Alvin Pettit, and Basil Watson.
The artists were chosen from more than 50 who submitted applications.
“The public’s input will help ensure that this statue honoring Harriet Tubman’s life and legacy will reflect the communities that shape Philadelphia,” the spokesperson said late Wednesday afternoon.
In a statement, Creative Philly said that after seeing the public’s rankings and comments, the five semifinalists will be given an opportunity “to incorporate any feedback into their designs prior to making their final design presentations to the African American Historic Statue Advisory Committee in October.” That is when “a summary of the survey results will be made public along with the announcement of the winning design.”