BREAKING THE BRONZE CEILING
BREAKING THE BRONZE CEILING: Envisioning and Creating the First Ever Monument to Real Women in Central Park
ZOOM Webinar Panel Discussion followed by a live ZOOM chat with invited guests
When: November 19, 2020 at 7pm
Where: Online (webinar link will be provided with a confirmed reservation)
Admission: $15; $25 or $75 (Donors at the $75 level will receive a commemorative tote bag as a thank you gift).
Donations will benefit SuffrageForward.
When Meredith Bergmann’s Women’s Rights Pioneers Monument was unveiled on August 26, 2020, it, in essence, broke Central Park’s bronze gender barrier. This panel discussion, via ZOOM Webinar, will explore the process of conceiving, advocating, and fundraising for the creation of this groundbreaking public sculpture. The panelists will be artist Meredith Bergmann, Pam Elam, and Coline Jenkins, with moderator Clare Bowes Sheridan. A live ZOOM chat will follow the webinar with invited guests.
“We are delighted to have been able to re-schedule this panel discussion for November 19th,” said Paulette Ross, chair of SuffrageForward. “Although we cannot gather in person, as we had originally planned, we were happy to pivot and offer it virtually. And what’s exciting is that we can reach an even broader audience through this webinar format,” she noted.
The journey of envisioning and creating this sculpture was spearheaded by Monumental Women, an all-volunteer, not-for-profit organization created in 2014, with the goal of creating the first statue of real women in Central Park. This journey had its own share of hurdles. Contending with NYC bureaucracy and permits was as massive a task as the process of sculpting the work. Monumental Women has raised over $1.5 million, with the help of private donations and the Girl Scouts, to fund the statue.
The three women of the Women’s Rights Pioneers Monument were selected by Monumental Women for their historic victories in women’s suffrage, women’s civil rights and the abolition of slavery. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and Sojourner Truth made history again when they became the first real women to be memorialized in NYC’s iconic Central Park. Although each of the three women are shown hard a work, having a vigorous conversation, it is Bergmann’s hope that viewers will make up their own story about who is saying what. Of the 840 acres in the 166-year-old park, where there are 23 statues of men, there are only a handful of sculptures of women— all based on fictional characters. This monument is sited on Literary Walk, near Sir Walter Scott and William Shakespeare.
Bergmann’s powerful homage to these remarkable women depicts a coalition of like-minded people and serves as an inspiration for further study and activism by young girls and women of all ages. With the Women’s Rights Pioneers Monument, Monumental Women and Bergmann begin to correct the scarcity of commemorative sculptures highlighting women’s achievements.
When the 14-foot monument was unveiled on August 26, 2020, it was the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving women the right to vote. 2020 is also the 200th anniversary of the birth of Susan B. Anthony.
The distinguished panelists will discuss the 6-year journey of this process and its significance.
Meredith Bergmann has been creating both private and public sculpture that addresses complex themes, such as social justice and human rights, in an accessible, beautiful, and provocative way, to challenge viewers and inspire change. Bergmann’s largest public commission, unveiled in 2003, was for the Boston Women’s Memorial on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston’s Back Bay. Her FDR Hope Memorial for New York City’s Roosevelt Island is to be completed in Spring 2020.
Pam Elam, the President of Monumental Women, has worked in various capacities for New York City government and its elected officials including: Coordinator at the Mayor’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs; Chief of Staff to a NYS Senator; and Deputy Chief of Staff to the Manhattan Borough President. Elam made her first public speech in support of Women’s Rights when she was 13 years old and has been organizing for women ever since, including in 2004 when she led the effort to approve legislation naming “Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton Corner” near the site where Anthony and Stanton published their newspaper, The Revolution.
Coline Jenkins is a legislator, author, television producer, and Vice President of Monumental Women. Jenkins comes from a long line of women activists including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, her great-great grandmother, and Harriot Stanton Blatch, her great-grandmother. Through the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Trust, of which she is co-founder and President, she is instrumental both in the advancement of women's rights and the preservation of the history of the women’s rights movement.
The moderator, Clare Bowes Sheridan, is the producer, writer and host of “Crossroads of Rockland History,” an award-winning radio show presented by The Historical Society of Rockland County. Before joining the Historical Society of Rockland County, she was Senior Vice President, Business Director at Sotheby’s for many years.
This program is a collaboration of SuffrageForward and the Rockland Center for the Arts . SuffrageForward’s mission is not only to celebrate women’s right to vote, but to empower women now and in the future and create awareness among all people of the strength and resiliency of girls and women.