HISTORY
Competition for Johnson-Rivera Monument Announced
LGBTQ artists encouraged to apply to create West Village tribute to early pioneers
BY MATT TRACY
Three months after the
city announced plans to
erect a monument dedicated
to LGBTQ icons
Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson
, the search is on for artists to
turn the project into a reality —
and queer applicants are encouraged
to apply.
The city is undergoing a rigorous,
multi-step process in pursuit
of artists or a team of artists interested
in creating the monument,
which will reside at Ruth Wittenberg
Triangle at 421 Sixth Avenue
at Christopher Street and Greenwich
Avenue and will honor two
trailblazers in the fi ght for queer
rights during the decades following
the Stonewall Uprising. The monuments
are being erected as part of
the She Built NYC campaign to create
monuments honoring women’s
MATT TRACY
Renderings of the monument dedicated to Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera are seen at the LGBT
Center in May. Artists have until October 1 to apply for the right to create the monument.
history in the fi ve boroughs.
Artists seeking to create the
monument will face a tall task in
depicting a pair of icons who have
achieved a prominent place in
queer history. Johnson and Rivera
were active with both the Gay Activists
Alliance and the Gay Liberation
Front, two early post-Stonewall
groups, and they also worked
to empower LGBTQ youth. They
launched the Street Transvestite
Action Revolutionaries (STAR),
an organization that, in its original
form, lasted only for a short
time but offered shelter for homeless
queer youth. The consensus
among researchers is that Johnson
was among the fi rst to fi ght
back against the NYPD raid of the
Stonewall Inn in June of 1969.
Those who would like to submit
an application must do so by an
October 1 deadline, according to
the city’s Department of Cultural
Affairs, which is leading the effort
to fi nd artists.
In the fi rst part of the application
process, the city asks artists
to provide examples of past work
to be reviewed by the city and an
advisory committee of outside arts
and design professionals. There is
no fee to apply, but the applications
must be submitted online via nyculture.
submittable.com/submit .
As part of the fi rst phase, applicants
must provide a “statement of
interest” explaining why they are
applying, outlining their qualifi -
cations for the project, previewing
their approach to the work,
and conveying how their style of
art makes sense for the project.
Separately, artists are to submit
an “artist’s statement” describing
their past and current work along
with samples of their work. Neither
of the two statements should exceed
250 words.
Artists are also asked to submit a
résumé detailing their artist work,
teaching experience, and community
work. Any relevant public or
private commissioning experience
should be included on the résumé.
Those who are submitting applications
as a team should attach a
two-page document explaining the
qualifi cations of each team member.
Each artist must also submit
two professional references. Artists
must have previous experience
working with the people listed as
references.
Finally, applicants should provide
work sample images, and
relevant videos, such as a kinetic
sculpture or one including a sound
element, can be submitted via a
PDF with a link to the video. A list
of submitted work should explain
materials, dimensions, locations,
and/ or run time, as well as oneto
two sentence descriptions.
During the second phase, fi nalists
will be invited to submit conceptual
proposals to be reviewed
by the committee. Finalists, according
to the city, will get an honorarium
of $1,500 for submitting
their proposals.
The fi nal projects will be judged
by appropriateness, skilled craftsmanship,
clarity of artistic vision,
cost of materials, and whether the
submission is “true to his/ her/
their sensibility.”
Those with questions about the
application process should contact
Percent@culture.nyc.gov .
September 12 - September 25, 2 26 019 | GayCityNews.com
/GayCityNews.com
/submit
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