If the Urban League of Greater Chattanooga doesn’t raise $30,000 by Dec. 1, the organization could lose the 20-foot stainless steel statue on its lawn.
“It’s the first piece of public art on M.L. King Boulevard, and it’s obviously noticeable, due to the size of it,” Warren E. Logan Jr., the Urban League’s president and CEO, said of the statue known as the “Family Revolution.”
Mr. Logan is asking supporters of public art and supporters of the Urban League’s mission for economic empowerment to donate toward keeping the statue on the boulevard.
The Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga will collect the donations, said Pete Cooper, foundation president.
“We have relationships with many donors, and I think they will have confidence that their money will be used for the proper purpose,” Mr. Cooper said.
The statue, which shows a family with its arms twisted toward each other and reaching toward the sky, illustrates the Urban League’s mission of economic empowerment, Mr. Logan said.
The city’s Art in the Neighborhoods program helped the Urban League get the statue in 2009. The Lyndhurst Foundation provided $5,000 through a matching grant that allowed the statue to be built and remain in Chattanooga for about 18 months.
If more funding isn’t contributed for the statue, it will be returned to the artist, Mr. Logan said.
Garry Bibbs, an associate professor at the University of Kentucky, created the sculpture for the Urban League to underscore the organization’s mission of empowering families, said Peggy Townsend, director of the City’s Public Art Chattanooga.
GET INVOLVEDTo contribute funds to keep the Urban League sculpture, visit the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga online at http://www.cfgc.org or call the Urban League at 756-1762.
“It would be fantastic to see it stay,” Ms. Townsend said.
Chattanooga’s Public Art Program administered the grant for the statue. The city’s Public Art Program is designed to assist community groups with generating unique public art projects in neighborhoods in the nine City Council districts, according to Urban League officials.
M.L. King neighborhood property owner and resident Moses Freeman said he saw the statue as a start of redevelopment for the M.L. King business district.
“It’s a class act to have a sculpture on M.L. King Boulevard,” he said.