Five semifinalists have been named in a sculpture contest that will commemorate Sadie T.M. Alexander, a pioneering African American civil rights activist from Philadelphia.
Val Gay is the Chief Creative Officer of the City of Philadelphia. She explained that Alexander paved the way for civil rights and resources for Black Americans.
“She was an activist, and herself, went through a lot of racism, of challenges to get where she was, and she never focused on that,” she said. “She really used her life of service for all Philadelphians, and particularly those Philadelphians who were not necessarily treated the best.”
She adds Alexander was the first African American to receive a doctorate of economics, while also studying law at Penn and becoming the first national president of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority.
The public art competition to commission a statue honoring Alexander began with an open call period for artists between Nov. 1 and Dec. 30 of last year. From there, a committee selected five of the 42 applicants to proceed based on qualifications, prior artwork and responses to application questions.
Gay said this allowed the city to focus more on the artist’s intent with a community focus in mind.
“So we don’t ask folks to submit what they would do,” she said. “But instead, we asked for previous work and for them to be able to talk about how they would treat this subject.”
The open call for artists and community engagement focus in the project comes after previous outcries over the closed-door commission process. This project has included a community input survey to gauge Philadelphians’ hopes on statue goals, and will include a future meeting where community members can meet finalists, see design proposals and provide feedback.
The semifinalists in the running come from a variety of artistic and geographical backgrounds:
- Vinnie Bagwell
- Tanda Francis
- Rayvenn Shaleigha D’Clark
- Alvin Pettit
- David Wilson, Stephen Hayes, Acori Honzo (Team WILSON + HAYES + HONZO)
Billy Penn spoke with a few of the finalists about their background and work
Team WILSON + HAYES + HONZO
This three-person team found a unique opportunity in this public art contest – combining their variety of skills and resources to apply and envision sculpture plans.
Durham-based artists David Wilson and Stephen Hayes regularly collaborate on various art projects. When they saw the application to take part in the Sadie T.M. Alexander project, Wilson said the opportunity felt aligned with their values.
“We’re always looking to be able to use our creative talents to tell lesser-known stories, or bring to light stories that are already known, and maybe uncover smaller details that might not be that familiarized with the greater public,” he said. “So when we saw this opportunity for Sadie T.M. Alexander, recognizing that she was a trailblazer on many fronts, and then being African American men, it resonated with us to be able to tell a story from our own kind of cultural and heritage perspective.”
Wilson and Hayes decided to do some research and find someone with Philly ties to help complete their team for this project. That’s when they connected with Acori Honzo – a Philadelphia-based contemporary artist.
“We reached out to Acori because we wanted to have that Philadelphia connection and authenticity, right?” he said. “Because a lot of this project is going to be fueled by community engagement and having that public buy in and trust.”
The team agreed it felt like a fit, and they proceeded to apply for the contest. Each of the men on the team have various backgrounds in art.
Hayes teaches sculpture at Duke, creates his own sculptures and participates in public art competitions. He says, as a Black man, his primary aim in any art he creates is to provide a “voice for the voiceless.”
“I want to change the way that somebody [who] looks like me is being viewed, and give them opportunities to say that they can be more than what the media predicts them to be,” he said.
Honzo shares a similar mission through his art. He is self-taught and has been sculpting for over 12 years. He said his breakthrough came when he decided to start creating miniature “afro-pop” figurines – aiming to inspire others and celebrate Black history.
“What if I made 12-inch figures about the same size as your Barbie so, [they can be] something that will connect with everyone, but I made them of historical Black figures as well as current icons of today,” he said. “And my work was meant to connect generations, where you have the older person and a young person be able to tell each other who they saw.”
Honzo said these sculptures, although small, “speak very loud” and invite dialogue.
“[These pieces] are inviting for conversations about race where nobody else is feeling defensive when they talk about it, because these pieces are warming, and they resonate with childhood,” he said.
As an artist, Wilson said he has created a variety of smaller pieces and series focusing on history and his experiences as a Black man. He explained that beyond this, he has been in public art for over 20 years now and sees a lot of value in connecting with the community.
“So I wasn’t just sitting somewhere in my own studio, creating through my own lens,” he said. “I was able to really talk to people who had the steep history, whether they were elders from the community, or people who were legacy — grandchildren or family members that were still alive from that era in which we were painting the mural for and get a deeper perspective that goes beyond just reading something in a book.”
Wilson said the team’s background, art experiences and community engagement ties will help to make this project more authentic.
“We all kind of have these unique skillsets that really overlap and weave together to create this great opportunity for us to honor Sadie T.M. Alexander’s legacy in a very unique way that is site specific, but also resonates with the community,” he said.
In terms of plans, Wilson spoke on behalf of the group – saying they intend to heavily rely on community engagement to ensure they are creating an appropriate sculpture and telling the story in the best way they can.
“We want those who live there, or who are visiting or maybe just relocating there, to come upon the art and feel like they have a connection with it, and that it makes sense, and that it is authentic,” he said.
The team emphasized they are excited to honor Alexander and her legacy, and to be involved in community discussions on how to do so.
Rayvenn Shaleigha D’Clark
Rayvenn Shaleigha D’Clark is a digital sculptor based in London, and has lived there her whole life. She said this contest caught her eye with its connection between art and history.
“As well as my artistic practice, I am kind of a researcher as well,” she said. “I do teach and I do research. And so for me, there’s something really wonderful that happens when you can marry together a project where you can build an artwork and kind of build a kind of history around it, but also then lends itself to a kind of a history as well.”
D’Clark’s background in sculpting revolves around portraying the human body in her sculpting. She is also passionate about addressing topics such as equity and inequality through her projects. She explained she feels her skills and background align well with the vision for this statute.
“I think definitely they want something that can be quite stoic – very of its time, but also quite contemporary in its feel,” she said. “I think that works quite well with the kind of digital sculpture more generally.”
D’Clark spent some time in Philadelphia recently, saying she is grateful for the area and the kindness of the people she interacted with. She emphasized she is excited to work on the project, despite some logistical challenges from being based further away.
“I think for me, obviously, it’s slightly different just because I’m in a slightly different time zone, so I have to always reconsider how I operate,” she said. “But I’m very lucky to have a very supportive agency and a lot of contacts within the industry. So for me, it’s gonna be kind of a moment, maybe in the immediate week, to sit down and really think about what I want to build, what that looks like in terms of potentially being built in the U.S. versus the U.K.”
Vinnie Bagwell
Vinnie Bagwell is an American sculptor who has worked on and won a number of public art commissions.
On her website, Bagwell says she is credited with “reframing” public art to include “historic Black images.”
Some of her recent and notable work includes “Enslaved Africans’ Rain Garden,” an urban-heritage public art project. The project features five life-sized bronze sculptures, in the City of Yonkers, that honors the legacy of the first enslaved Africans to be released from slavery by law in the U.S. – 64 years before the Emancipation Proclamation. She has also created things like “Victory …” an angel outside of New York’s Central Park, and “Sojourner Truth,” a sculpture commissioned by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment and Women’s Suffrage Movement.
Tanda Francis
Tanda Francis is a Brooklyn-based artist primarily focusing on public art including monumental African heads.
According to her website, her work addresses “diasporic African people who are too often underrepresented in public art.” She also says she values starting conversations that cross cultural barriers.
She has created several site-specific pieces of public art, including “BIGGIE,” a memorial for rapper Notorious B.I.G.; “Everyone Breaks,” a set of human faces intended to emphasize disconnection; and “Adorn Me,” a sculpture that is placed in a park around a formerly working-class and low-income neighborhood and is attempting to speak directly to the African American community.
Alvin Petit
Alvin Petit is a New York/New Jersey-based artist. On his website, he mentions he drew inspiration from his elders – including his father, grandfather, great uncle and great grandmother, who were also artists.
Petit started studying art from a young age – beginning in a children’s program when he was 10, and moving up through art competitions and high school art training. He eventually traveled abroad to study sculpture during a summer program, and received a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in NYC.
He has had a long career of illustrating, creating large-scale commercial sculptures and public art commissions – including being selected to create the Harriet Tubman Monument in front of Philadelphia’s City Hall. Much of his work focuses on African American rights and commemorating Black figures.
Next steps
In terms of next steps, Gay said they are hoping to have the project finished on an “expedited timeline.”
“We are looking to have this fully installed next fall, which is like lightning speed, because it takes about a year to even make the whole thing, because there’s a lot of the process – things have to dry, things have to be fabricated, all of that stuff,” she said.
Gay said she has high hopes for the final product.
“Our hope is that she will provide inspiration and pride for every Philadelphian and regardless of their identity, that we will come together as Philadelphians and say, ‘This person who did all these amazing things came from us,’ ” she said. “I would love every child, regardless of their identity or their lived experience, to look at her and say, ‘Oh, she could do that. We could do that. I can do that.’ ”
The statue will be located near the entrance to the Municipal Services Building on JFK Boulevard.
