As Confederate monuments come down, Cultural Council starts dialogue

By Alex Wilson  – Reporter, Jacksonville Business Journal
June 11, 2020
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​On Monday, the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville reached out to the mayor's office. Around the country, monuments to the Confederacy were coming down, and the council wanted to start a conversation about doing so here.
As the custodian of the city's public art, it suggested creating a civic panel that could look at removing or recontextualizing the statues.
"The civic panel would unify the community through collectively identifying possibilities for actions toward public artworks such as removal, relocation, renaming, reinvestment, or reinterpretations through signage, or altogether new public artworks,” the letter read.
By Tuesday, the suggestion was a moot point.

"The civic panel would unify the community through collectively identifying possibilities for actions toward public artworks such as removal, relocation, renaming, reinvestment, or reinterpretations through signage, or altogether new public artworks,” the letter read.
By Tuesday, the suggestion was a moot point.
Early in the morning, city workers removed the statue of a Confederate soldier in Hemming Park. Curry later announced that all remaining Confederate monuments in the city – including two monuments and eight markers or signs – would be removed as soon as possible.
"This is one action, there is more work to come," Curry said on Tuesday. "But yesterday, there was a Confederate monument in that park. It's gone, and the others in this city will be removed as well."
It now falls to the Cultural Council to determine what to do with those monuments.

In a Wednesday morning executive committee meeting, Cultural Council Executive Director Joy Young said she has already scheduled a meeting with Chief of Staff Brian Hughes for this Friday. In an interview with the Business Journal, Young said Hughes hopes to discuss “how to bring the right people together and to achieve the goals you and the mayor share.”
Before Tuesday, Young said she wasn’t aware that plans had been made to remove the statue.
“We had no indication that this was on the horizon,” Young said. “Realizing that arts and culture do play a part in social conversations, I just felt it immediately important that the mayor’s office knew we were very interested in being an even more engaged partner in the dialogue.”
Young said she sent the proposal to Curry because she recognized that the various Confederate memorials, including the Hemming Park statue, were at the forefront of the city's conversation about race in the city and country.
"We knew proactively that there needed to be a conservation around a very divisive symbol in our community," she said. "We realized there was certainly some tension in the air. We wanted to proactively reach out to be part of a solution rather than stay voiceless and react."
She added that the Cultural Council fully supported Curry’s decision.
“I believe this action – while some might feel it is controversial – really speaks to who we are as a city in the 21st century,” Young said. “We’re diverse, and we’re certainly a part of a broader global community. We thank the mayor for his leadership."
With one statue removed and more to follow, Young said she hopes to bring a variety of options to the table as to what will happen to them. As the official custodian, the council is bound by city regulations and the Visual Artist Rights Act, a federal law that can apply to statues, allowing them to be moved but not destroyed, distorted or mutilated.
“We believe there is space for dialogue and through dialogue and the next steps, we can achieve a more positive outcome," Young said. "What those exact steps are, I think that’s why you bring together the community and create the panel to offer dialogue and insight. I don’t walk into any of this that there is a preconceived idea other than this must be addressed open and honestly. It’s not about erasing the fact, it’s about adding to a bigger and broader dialogue of inclusivity and honesty.”
Some of the options Young has considered include relocation, re-naming or adding context by including additional signage.
“Arts and culture play such a huge role in our community – how we interpret and think about ourselves and how others think about us,” Young said. “We should always be mindful of the power that art has, and we invest in the arts for their economic value, but there is also tremendous social value that is very good for our community with intentionality and inclusivity.”