January 12, 2024
Provided image/OFFICE OF ARTS, CULTURE AND THE CREATIVE ECONOMY
The Philadelphia Art Commission unanimously approved the city's plans for a Harriet Tubman statue to be placed outside the northeast apron of City Hall. The image above is a rendering of the monument.
The process for adding a statue honoring Harriet Tubman outside City Hall reached a pivotal stage Wednesday, when the Philadelphia Art Commission unanimously gave its final approval to the project.
The city now can begin the contracting process with sculptor Alvin Pettit. His 15-foot statue will sit on City Hall's northeast apron. Its completion is scheduled for some time in 2025.
"It is appropriate that this statue portraying Harriet Tubman as a strong soldier is located on the apron of City Hall where two other statues of Civil War soldiers stand," said Marguerite Anglin, the public art director of the city's Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy.
The proposal for a permanent Tubman statue formally began in 2022. After a traveling Tubman statue placed outside City Hall was met with praise, city officials sought to add a permanent monument to the abolitionist.
Wesley Wofford, the artist behind the traveling statue, initially was given a $500,000 commission to design a Tubman statue for Philly. But the selection prompted criticism because the city had not opened the process for submissions. The city reversed course and made an open call for artists to design a new statue. Pettit, who is based in Jersey City, was one of five finalists.
Philly residents helped select his design through a public survey that received nearly 3,000 responses.
Pettit has said his design, titled "A Higher Power: The Call of a Freedom Fighter," was inspired by Arnold Friberg’s 1975 painting "The Prayer at Vally Forge," which depicts George Washington praying in the woods.
"The bronze sculpture will show Tubman in a similar majestic stance, but with the wind fiercely blowing against her, while she remains stoic," Pettit wrote. "Viewers can determine why she is calling upon her faith at this moment, rather than drawing any of her physical weaponry."
