DIFFERENCE MAKERS

Difference Makers | living

working for 25 years for city offi als and agencies. In 2014, she helped found Monumental Women, an allvolunteer organization whose goal was to get more artwork honoring women to the city.

“It is not easy to donate a work of art to the city of New York,” Elam said. “It was not easy to take the long and bumpy bureaucratic roller coaster ride through the minefield of ew York City government, as we traveled through the Parks Department, the Central Park Conservancy, the Public Design Commission and every single community board surrounding Central Park. But we persisted and obtained approval from them all.”

The group raised $41.5 million in private funding.

“In 2020, we broke the bronze ceiling with our Women’s Rights Pioneer Monument honoring Sojourner truth, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the fist statue of real women in Central Park’s 167-year history,” Elam said.

Three years ago, the organization issued a request for proposals from artists. Out of that design competition, Meredith Bergmann was chosen.

Bergmann, trained at the Copper, has sculpture in the New York Library Collection, at the campus of Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina and the Commonwealth Avenue Mall in Boston.

“Her design evolved during the approval process,” Elam said. “The Monumental Women Board decided the statue would include Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Sojourner Truth, because they were all New Yorkers and contemporaries fightig for equality and justice. They often spoke on the same stages and attended the same meetings. Our board felt it was only fittig they should share the same pedestal.”

The famous were out in front at that August ceremony, but just as importantly, the much younger generation was there. At one point in the ceremony, Elam called out the names of the Girl Scouts who had donated their cookie sales money to the cause.

“I wanted to fid a way to include different generations of women/girls in the unveiling ceremony,” Elam said. “Because of the pandemic restrictions and social distancing requirements, I thought that doing the countdown (to pulling the cloth off te statue) together from various locations in the audience would highlight the Girl Scouts and different generations working for women’s equality. So when I called the names of the girls representing the Girl Scout Troops that helped us, they stood and we all did the countdown together.”

The sculpture is just the beginning for the Monumental Women organization. The next steps are focused on educating the public on women’s accomplishments and showing young girls that all doors should be open to them.

“Our next goals include the creation of a New York City Women’s Rights Trail through all five boroughs as well as the donation of books on women’s history to all public school libraries in New York City,” Elam said. “Monumental Women has always been committed to honoring the diverse women in history who dedicated their lives to fightig for equality, justice and women’s rights. We want to tell their stories and document their vast contributions. The statues we will create convey the power of women working together to bring about change in our society.” a

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