7 City Council members urge arts office to seek ‘remedy plan’ and ‘prioritize’ Philly artists for Harriet Tubman statue

Seven Philadelphia City Council members voiced “disappointment” with a city plan to award a $500,000 commission for a permanent Harriet Tubman statue without providing an opportunity to consider Philadelphia artists.

In March, the city’s Office of Arts Culture and the Creative Economy (OACCE) announced plans to award the commission to Wesley Wofford, the North Carolina sculptor who created a traveling version of his Journey to Freedom statue that stood outside City Hall earlier this year.

In a letter dated Aug. 18, written and signed by Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, the elected officials told the Creative Economy office:

“While Mr. Wofford’s work on the original Harriet Tubman statue was impressive and deserve celebration, Philadelphia’s taxpayer dollars towards Philadelphia’s public art should be prioritized with Philadelphia artists.” (Bold is original in letter.)

The letter said Thomas enjoyed working with the Creative Economy office for the “Illuminate the Arts” grants program “to put government dollars in artists’ pockets.”

“I am writing to express my disappointment that this vision was not shared when commissioning Philadelphia’s first publicly funded statue of a woman of color,” he said.

The letter was co-signed by Councilmembers Helen Gym, Katherine Gilmore Richardson, Derek S. Green, Curtis Jones, Jamie Gauthier, and Cherelle L. Parker.

» READ MORE: City’s plan for $500K Harriet Tubman monument comes under fire for not being open to Black artists

Earlier this summer, the Celebrating the Legacy of Nana Harriet Tubman Committee, an advocacy group, denounced the Wofford commission as an unfair “no-bid” process.

“We feel cheated that we can’t get a chance to see what renditions other artists can offer us,” committee spokesperson Maisha Sullivan-Ongoza told city officials during a June 15 public input meeting.

Kelly Lee, the executive director of the Office of Art, Culture and the Creative Economy, has said in earlier interviews — and on its website — that the office decided to give the commission for a permanent statue to Wofford because of the positive reactions they heard from many people.

“Close to 4 million people were reached and impacted by Wesley’s work and shared images, commented on the beauty and likeness of the statue, how much it captured Harriet Tubman’s courage and spirit, and expressed how deeply the statue made them feel” is a statement on the office’s website.

Lee has said that her office is permitted to award no-bid commissions in certain circumstances, and the city’s legal department supported that position, a city spokesperson said.

In the June meeting, Tubman committee members said it was insulting that Black American sculptors were not given an opportunity to submit statue renderings, considering that Tubman remains one of the most iconic Black women in American history.

The councilmembers’ letter raised similar concerns:

“Additionally, an artist of color should be prioritized as we are honoring a historical figure who is a woman of color at a time when we are working to address a lack of representation.”

Sullivan-Ongoza released Thomas’ letter, a copy of which Sullivan-Ongoza received by email on Monday, during a Harriet Tubman committee meeting earlier this week.

In an interview Thursday, Max Weisman, a spokesperson for Thomas, confirmed both the authenticity of the letter and that portions were sent in boldface type.

In a statement to The Inquirer on Thursday, Lee said: “We have received the letter from City Councilmembers and appreciate the sentiments laid out in it. The Administration and OACCE have always been committed to public art that celebrates and showcases the stories of African American contributions to this country’s history while also developing or supporting various opportunities to increase the diversity of artists.”

Weisman said Lee responded to him personally in an email dated Tuesday. It was not addressed to Thomas.

Lee’s email began:

“Hi Max, I appreciate the communication and understand your disappointment.

" … The conversation around the permanent Harriet Tubman statue have raised issues about public art that are happening in every city and are important to OACCE. We value the supportive and collaborative relationship with City Council and will let you and the other members of City Council know of updates as we move forward.

“Best regards,

“Kelly”

At the Tuesday night Tubman committee meeting, participants said they have been writing to their councilmembers, giving weekly interviews on WURD-Radio, and taking in-person petitions to churches, mosques, and other places. The petitions demand that the city open up the process for awarding the Tubman statue commission.

As of Thursday morning, 741 people have signed the group’s change.org petition asking Mayor Jim Kenney to create an open-call process.

In addition, Sullivan-Ongoza said the committee has also collected between 300 to 400 in-person signatures on paper.

» READ MORE: $500K Harriet Tubman statue controversy gets national attention, prompts a petition, and elicits the sculptor’s response

At that Zoom meeting, committee members said they are still waiting for a response from an early-August letter they sent to Kenney that requested a meeting.

A spokesperson for the mayor said Kenney received the letter and it was sent to his scheduling office to determine when and whether a meeting is possible.

Committee members said they admired Wofford’s statue but added that the decision for a $500,000 permanent statue should not be based on how many people “liked” his traveling statue.

“It doesn’t matter how many people ‘liked’ the statue,” Sullivan-Ongoza said Tuesday night. “This isn’t Facebook. This is about what is the city’s policy on awarding contracts.”

OACCE brought the temporary statue to Philadelphia from Jan. 11 through March 31 to honor Black History Month in February, Women’s History Month in March, and because 2022 is the 200th anniversary of Tubman’s birth.

“So far the city only got 424 responses to its public survey about what they wanted to see in the statue,” Sullivan-Ongoza said this week. “How does 424 responses equate to 4 million people liking the statue?” Sullivan-Ongoza also questioned how 4 million people liked the statue in Philadelphia.

Fasaha Traylor, coauthor of the book They Carried Us: The Social Impact of Philadelphia’s Black Women Leaders, attended the Zoom meeting and told the 28 people who gathered it was “offensive” that the city awarded the commission without giving artists of color a chance to compete.

“How disappointing it is that there were so many problems with understanding the basic idea of equal opportunity in 2022,” Traylor said.

Tubman was born enslaved in Maryland in 1822 and is the most famous “conductor” of the Underground Railroad. She made her first escape in 1849 and came to Philadelphia, where she worked with abolitionist William Still and spoke at Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

She became an iconic figure for making several more trips to the South to lead others to freedom and joined with Union forces on a raid on plantations along the Combahee River in South Carolina that freed 700 enslaved people during the Civil War.

Ogundipe Fayomi, who said he is an African-American sculptor living in Brooklyn, N.Y., was also at the meeting. He said, “In all my applications for commissions here in New York, I had to go through a vetting process, which is the way it’s supposed to be.” He also said that even when Black American artists receive commissions, the process for paying them is often delayed and dragged out over time.

Thomas’ letter took note of the rationale posted on the OACCE’s website but added in bold: “I am disappointed that there was not a creative solution that designates government dollars to Philadelphia artists.”

He also said he looked forward to receiving a “remedy plan” from the office.

Sullivan-Ongoza said she was pleased to read the councilmember’s letter but said she would not have narrowed eligibility to Philadelphia artists only.

She said the group plans to attend the next meeting of the Philadelphia Art Commission in September.