Before the student
sit-in demonstrations gained traction in Nashville and served as a model for
civil rights demonstrations throughout the South, the Rev. Kelly Miller Smith
Sr. was there at every turn leading the fight against injustices and waging a
fierce campaign to end segregation.
First Baptist
Church, Capitol Hill, then pastored by Smith, was at the forefront as well and served
as the headquarters for the arduous campaign. But Smith’s contributions –
widely recognized and hailed in historic annals – weren’t enough to warrant
recognition or a facsimile of Smith on the “Witness Walls,” a public art
installation commemorating the “Nashville Movement.”
“Witness Walls,” a
series of concrete walls fronted with historical images, will be installed on
the west side of the Metro Courthouse later this year. It is a $350,000 project
commissioned by the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission to honor the capitol
city’s contributions to the civil rights movement.
The Nashville Civil
Rights Veterans Association (NCRVA), however, is “incensed” with the final
design that Oakland landscape architect Walter Hood was
chosen to create. In a letter to Metro Arts dated June 28, the NCRVA spelled
out its “demand” in very specific terms.
“We demand the
following: “1) an apology for this travesty; 2) cessation of the entire
project; 3) redesign of the Wall’s image to include a prominent display of Rev.
Kelly Miller Smith Sr.’s face; and 4) the official monument location when
completed to be called the Rev. Kelly Miller Smith Sr. Freedom Plaza.”
A discussion about
who would grace the Walls locally took place on Feb. 2, 2016, at Metro Arts.
The NCRVA argued to include Smith and his contributions. However, during the
week of June 20th, “We were notified that the Witness Walls design
did not contain an image of Rev. Kelly Miller Smith Sr.”
On Friday, July 1, Jennifer
Cole, executive director for Metro Arts, released a joint media statement from
the arts organization and the artist when asked about the omission of Smith on
the Witness Walls and NCRVA’s demand for redress.
“The Witness Walls project has been underway
for nearly three years,” the statement said. “Since its inception, Metro Arts has
framed this as an artwork, not a memorial or a monument to individuals or a
specific documentation of historic events.”
The statement also
noted that projects commissioned by Metro Arts include community feedback and
input, and that the role of the artist is to listen, interpret and then create
an artwork inspired from community conversations.
Whether Smith’s
omission was blatant or not, the statement spells out Metro Arts’ practices
regarding public art and the autonomy given to the artist when creating the
final design. “It is never our practice to promise specific design elements to
stakeholder groups, as the final concept for artwork always rests with the
artist.”
“The staff (Metro
Arts) offered a callous, undefendable excuse then which was culminated in the
Arts Commission now making a mockery of citizens’ participation,” the NCRVA
said regarding their meeting with Metro Arts and the NCRVA’s “empathetic
insistence” to include Smith’s image in the final design.
Metro Arts said the Movement, which encompassed
sit-ins, economic boycotts, marches, acts of violence and acts of
reconciliation, involved thousands of people and stories and that Hood met with
the NCRVA three times to review and discuss sample images.
“The artist, at the
request of the Veterans, did modify some images to focus on collective action,
specifically the inclusion of an image of the Freedom Rides in the design.”
Other images were “culled through archives and stories submitted online to
inform his final design concept.”
Hood’s final
design, the statement said, was discussed at two publically noticed meetings – the
Public Art Committee Meeting on Feb. 9 and a board of commissioners meeting on
Feb. 18. “No concerns were raised at either.”
The NCRVA has
called for a redesign. Metro Arts said the final design has now moved into
fabrication and that no changes are forthcoming.
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