Photo: Getty Images
The city of Philadelphia is moving forward with a Black artist's winning design of a Harriet Tubman statue for outside City Hall after facing backlash for originally selecting a white artist to create the monument.
According to the Associated Press, artist Alvin Pettit won a competition against four other semifinalists to have his design featured in front of City Hall. Pettit's "A Higher Power: The Call of a Freedom Freedom Fighter," will portray Tubman as a military leader and freedom fighter on a nearly 14-foot bronze statue.
“She is shown in majestic prayer. Perhaps she is calling upon her faith or contemplating a battle,” Pettit said of his clay model of the design. “This woman was a soldier, a scout, a union spy, a military strategist, and a war hero. Therefore I captured a moment in time that shows her as a conqueror.”
The selection of Pettit's design comes after city officials offered the commission to artist Wesley Wofford, who is white, last year. Artists and activists protested the decision, urging the city to hold an open competition to give a chance to other artists of color.
“As an artist, it’s hurtful and it is traumatizing,” artist Dee Jones told city officials during a meeting in June 2022. “If it was an open call, and Wesley was chosen, it would be fine. But because the process wasn’t open, that’s the big issue.”
Following the backlash, Wofford took his design out of the running, and Philadelphia's Office of Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy issued an open call for submissions
The competition was narrowed down to finalists before the public got a chance to weigh in. City officials and Philadelphia's African American Statue Advisory Committee, which includes members of Tubman’s family, ultimately chose to commission Petitt for the design.
The statue is expected to be completed in 2025.
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