Up until recently, you could only find 5 sculptures of women in NYC: Eleanor Roosevelt in Riverside Park, Gertrude Stein, in Bryant Park, Harriet Tubman at the intersection of 122nd Street, St. Nicholas Ave, and Frederick Douglass Blvd, Joan of Arc at 200 West 14th Street and Golda Meir at Golda Meir Square (the square was named after her in 1979) on 39th Street and Broadway. I was always proud that the Israeli prime minister, Golda Meir, was one of the few women to receive this honor.
On June 7th, 2019 a new, one day only, art installation, of 140 mirrored statues, popped up in front of the Flatiron Building. The signs next to this installation stated that: “Today in New York there are 145 statues honoring men and only 5 honoring women. These are the 140 missing status needed for equal gender representation”. That was a temporary installation made by Hulu as a promotion of the new season of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale‘.
Today, August 26th, 2019, on the official ‘Women’s Equality Day‘, NYC received 10 brand new statues of honorable women, increasing the percentage of female statues representation in the city from 3% to 11%.
This historic moment was achieved thanks to the ‘Statues for Equality‘ project by the artists Gillie and Marc. This project is featuring some of the amazing women that impacted our lives in bronze sculptures: Jane Goodall, Cheryl Strayed, Pink, Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett, Tererai Trent, Janet Mock, Tracy Dyson, Oprah Winfrey, and Gabby Douglas. The statue of the notorious RBG, judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, will join them soon.
Currently, all 10 sculptures are standing in a row in front of the 1285 building on 6th Avenue. “We hope that as the project expands, it will include a broader diversity of race, class, ability, sexual orientation, and gender expression,” says Gillie. The artists are asking the public to nominate the next women that deserve the recognition of being immortalized in bronze! The artists also launched portraits of Women For Equality at City Point BKLYN which you are welcome to visit.
Help Gillie and Marc continue their mission to balance gender representation in public art by hashtagging #StatuesforEquality and nominating the next woman you’d like to see immortalized in bronze!