The Unified Civic Monuments Project (UCMP) announced on Tuesday, Jan. 18, that the team of Harold Woodridge and David Alan Clark were selected to design and install four new monuments in Benton Harbor and St. Joseph. One installation site in each city will each feature a statue of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as well as a second element representing that city’s history.
Tami Miller of the Krasl Art Center is one of the UCMP committee leaders. She said of the Woodridge and Clark team, “they are working together as an artist team and part of what we loved about their proposal was their collaborative working process that reflects the collaboration that this project itself takes on and proposes.”
The selection process included a national request for qualifications released in June of 2021, detailed proposals from four finalists that were reviewed in November and December, and soliciting input from the community.
Woodridge, who lives in Indiana, and Clark, from Wyoming, met 40 years ago as students at Washington University in St. Louis. The team attended a virtual event hosted by the UCMP as part of Lake Michigan College’s Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Week, during which the announcement was made.
Woodridge described the team’s vision behind the proposed sculptures: “We wanted to create an experience that honors and furthers his legacy and creates an engaging environment for people. It doesn’t just look backward at what he did accomplish but considers what can be done in the future in furtherance of that legacy.”
The team briefly presented two sculpture concepts from their proposal, which can be found in full at unifiedmonuments.org/artists.
One concept, called “A Seat at the Table,” features a table split into two halves of a ying-yang symbol. One half of the table would be installed in each city, with a bronze statue of King standing at the head of the table. Seats around the table would be available for visitors, where interaction with the piece would be encouraged.
The other concept, called “Bridges,” includes a cast bridge in each city with a statue of King walking with another statue. Woodridge and Clark sketched two children walking with King for the Benton Harbor site and a worker as the second figure for the St. Joseph site.
The artists will seek input from the community and present a final proposal later in the spring.
Clark reflected on what made them excited to be awarded the contract. “It’s rare that art gets a chance to work in a social justice pattern like this. Thank you for the confidence in us.”
Emanuel Brown is co-director of the African-American History and Literature Gallery in Benton Harbor and, along with his wife Sharon Brown, one of the founding members of the UCMP. He said, “we’re excited about the selection of the sculptors. I think they bring a realism to the work – they capture movement and personality and spirit. They have some really wonderful ideas about conceptualizing the connectivity between both communities.”
Committee member Karen Laetz presented a shortlist of eventual installation sites in Benton Harbor and St. Joseph that have generated the most interest from the public. In Benton Harbor, the top sites for the sculpture are Yarborough Park, City Center Park and Morton Park Armory. In St. Joseph, the most popular sites have been Lake Bluff Park, the Arboretum along the river, and Milton Park.
Laetz also presented a local site being developed that is being newly considered for the monuments. The City Bridges, where a new pedestrian bridge has recently been built across the Paw Paw River, to the east of the Inn at Harbor Shores and to the west of the new Whirlpool housing development off Riverview Drive. Each city’s installation would be on opposite sides of the Paw Paw. Laetz mentioned that these sites wouldn’t have as much traffic as the other sites under discussion, particularly since the park is not yet well-known. But she said that it could be a good choice as “more of a quiet place for contemplation.”
The second element to be included in each installation has yet to be decided. Attendees were asked to vote in a poll about what type of figures they would like to see featured at each site: A symbolic representation important to each city’s identity, a space where multiple historic figures and events from each city can be represented, or a real historic figure from each city.
Though the symbolic representation was the most popular idea among the 40 participants at the meeting, the content of the secondary figures has not been decided. The same survey that was used at the event is available at unifiedmonuments.org so more members of the public can voice their opinions.
The group also announced that it is almost halfway to its fundraising goal of $850,000. More details, and a link for online donations, can be found at unifiedmonuments.org.