Newark

Commissioning Community-Centered Public Art in Newark

CitiesNewarkCommissioning Community-Centered Public Art in Newark

Bloomberg Associates designed a public process to help the City of Newark commission a new monument honoring Harriet Tubman and New Jersey’s role in the Underground Railroad, and helped implement the chosen design.

We have created a focal point in the heart of our city that expresses our participation in an ongoing living history of a people who have grappled through many conflicts to steadily lead our nation in its progress toward racial equality.

Ras J. Baraka, Mayor of Newark

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Challenge

In September 2020, Mayor Ras J. Baraka announced that the City of Newark would commission a new monument honoring Harriet Tubman, the renowned abolitionist who helped many freedom seekers escape slavery through the Underground Railroad, which passed through many sites in New Jersey and specifically in Newark. The new monument would be built in a downtown park — to be renamed Harriet Tubman Square — a historic commons nestled among major civic institutions, including the Newark Museum of Art and the main branch of the Newark Public Library. As this would be the City’s first major public art installation in decades, there was no process for commissioning public sculpture of this scale and longevity. The City needed help with every aspect of the process from stakeholder engagement and artist selection to oversight of design development, fabrication, and the installation process.

Photo Credit: Cesar Melgar/DreamPlay Media

Approach

Following the announcement, Mayor Baraka and the City’s Arts & Cultural Affairs Director engaged Bloomberg Associates to develop a process for commissioning this major new piece of public art, and to provide ongoing guidance as the project developed. The City’s priorities included a transparent selection process, constructive community engagement, elevating the local creative sector, and advancing bold vision of Newark, past and present. After issuing a national open call, the City announced 5 finalists in March 2021, each of whom were hired to create a conceptual design for the new monument. Community members were invited to offer comments and opinions about the proposed designs, which were taken into consideration by the jury of art experts, historians, and community stakeholders facilitated by Bloomberg Associates. The conceptual design submitted by New Jersey artist Nina Cooke John was announced as the winner in June 2021, and Newark-based emerging artist Adebunmi Gbadebo was selected as an apprentice to assist with research and community engagement throughout the project.

Podcast

Memorializing Loss, Injustice, and History

Hear Fayemi Shakur, the Arts and Cultural Affairs Director of the City of Newark discuss the process of selecting Cooke John’s design, how the artist team is working with the community, and what it means for cities to construct new monuments today.

Impact

The new monument transforms the park from a space used primarily as a pass-through to an empowering place for the community to gather and learn more about Newark’s history and identity. The circular design invites visitors to enter and flow through its learning walls, and it includes a multimedia component with a sound installation featuring renowned performer and Newark native Queen Latifah and produced by Audible, which is headquartered adjacent to the park.

And beyond the park itself, the project brought national attention to Newark. Major funding was secured from the Mellon Foundation’s national Monuments Project, and there were over 50 news articles covering the unveiling, including major national outlets. The project placed Newark at the forefront of a nationwide movement to design a more inclusive, diverse, and community-centered approach to commissioning civic public art.