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A32 FEATURE
Friday 22 November 2019
Sculptor crafting first women's statue for Central Park

By SUSAN HAIGH Meanwhile, work is nearly
JOSEPH FREDERICK complete for the FDR Hope
Associated Press Memorial on Roosevelt Is-
RIDGEFIELD, Conn. (AP) — land in Manhattan, which
A sculptor known for trying features two statues Berg-
to redress history through mann created of the late
her art is creating the first President Franklin D. Roos-
statue of real-life women evelt in a wheelchair and
for New York's Central Park, a young girl with crutches,
where the only females so greeting one another. The
honored until now have memorial is supposed to
been fictional characters. be an inspiration to people
Meredith Bergmann's vision struggling with all forms
for the sculpture, chosen of disability, in a location
from 91 submissions, fea- once called Welfare Island
tures three women's rights — a stretch of land with a
pioneers — Susan B. Antho- long past that included a
ny, Elizabeth Cady Stanton prison and a smallpox hos-
and Sojourner Truth. While pital.
honoring their specific ef- For the Central Park proj-
forts on behalf of women's ect, Bergmann studied ev-
suffrage, women's civil In this Nov. 4, 2019, still image from video, sculptor Meredith Bergmann works on the first women's ery photo and description
rights and the abolition of statue that will be installed in New York's Central Park, in her studio in Ridgefield, Conn. she could find, taking great
slavery, Bergmann hopes Associated Press pains, for example, to re-
her latest work will also munity leaders, set out to "This statue conveys the but escaped to freedom in flect a "hint of a smile" on
make a statement about break what they've called power of women working 1826. It originally included the face of Truth, known to
the need to recognize the the "bronze ceiling" and together to bring about Anthony, a writer, lecturer have a good sense of hu-
contributions of women. develop a statue depict- revolutionary change in and abolitionist who fought mor. While the three activ-
"This monument has a very ing real women. With the our society. It invites people for the rights of women to ists are not depicted in the
focused message," she said help of the Girl Scouts, pri- to reflect not just on these vote and own property; monument at any known
in an interview at her studio vate foundations and oth- women and their work for Stanton, another leading meeting, Bergmann said it's
in Ridgefield, Connecticut. ers, they raised $1.5 million equality and justice, but on figure in the women's vot- plausible they could have
"The fact of the monument in private funding for the all the monumental wom- ing rights movement, and met together. She noted
itself, that it exists at all, that 14-foot-tall monument, to en who came before us." an abolitionist and author; how Anthony and Stan-
it will be where it is, is the be located on the park's Midway into the massive and a scroll with a list of 17 ton, who worked together
message." Literary Walk. It's sched- and multi-faceted project, other women involved in and formed the National
Of the 23 statues of his- uled to be unveiled on Bergmann and her assis- the women's movement Woman Suffrage Associa-
torical figures in the 840- Aug. 26, 2020, marking the tants have nearly finished from 1848 to 1920. tion, would have known
acre, 166-year-old public 100th anniversary of the sculpting from foam and Bergmann dove deeply Truth through abolition
park, none honors actual 19th Amendment to the clay an imagined scene of into the worlds and his- and women's rights circles,
women. There are statues U.S. Constitution, which en- the three women having tories of all three women and how Truth was a guest
of three female fictional shrined the right for women a conversation at a table. and their senses of mission, at Stanton's home in the
characters: Alice in Won- to vote. Truth is speaking, Anthony similar to what the artist has 1860s. Stanton's daughter
derland, Mother Goose "It's fitting that the first stat- is organizing and Stanton is done with her other works would read newspapers
and William Shakespeare's ue of real women in Cen- writing, which Bergman de- of public art. One such aloud to Truth, who was il-
Juliet, who appears with tral Park depicts three New scribes as the three essen- work, the Boston Women's literate.
Romeo. York women who dedicat- tial elements of activism. Memorial, features statues Bergmann has also fo-
There had been a morato- ed their lives to fighting for The current design is the re- portraying Abigail Adams, cused on other fine details,
rium on erecting any new women's rights," said Pam sult of a long process that the wife and mother of two such as the women's cloth-
statues in Central Park. But Elam, president of Monu- involved various changes, U.S. presidents and a wom- ing. She noted that all three
in 2014, a volunteer, non- mental Women, in a writ- including the late addition en's rights advocate; abo- "used their outfits to calm
profit group called Monu- ten statement last month of Sojourner Truth, an Afri- litionist and suffragist Lucy people, to show that they
mental Women, made up after the project received can-American abolitionist Stone; and Phillis Wheatley, were not threatening pro-
of women's rights advo- approval from a city com- and women's rights activist a former slave who be- priety, but also that they
cates, historians and com- mission. who was born into slavery came a literary prodigy. were women who valued
themselves."
Once the sculpting work
is done, likely in the com-
ing weeks, Bergmann said
molds will be taken and
they will eventually be cast
in bronze at a foundry in
New York.
Detailed work will need
to be performed, such as
making sure the women's
heads are at the right tilt
and the ends of the granite
This Nov. 4, 2019, still image from video shows a portion of the base are curved perfectly.
In this Nov. 4, 2019, still image from video, sculptor Meredith first women's statue that will be installed in New York's Central It has become a labor of
Bergmann works on the first women's statue that will be installed Park, as it is being created by sculptor Meredith Bergmann in love for Bergmann, albeit a
in New York's Central Park, in her studio in Ridgefield, Conn. her studio in Ridgefield, Conn.
Associated Press Associated Press challenging one.q