Little Rock's Central High Public Art - United

09/22/2017 UPDATE: Honored to have seven of the Little Rock Nine at the Unveiling and Dedication of United by Clay Enoch and the National Sculptors' Guild at Central High School, Little Rock, AR.

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"United" pictured with the installation team at Central High, Little Rock, AR

09/21/2017 UPDATE: We are in Little Rock for the installation of United by Clay Enoch and the National Sculptors' Guild The 10-foot bronze commemorates the 60th Anniversary of the integration of Central High.

Clay states about the sculpture... “I wanted to try to shift the focus from the historical to the contemporary. There has been so much progress made. I wanted to create something that showed the strides that have been made — something hopeful and uplifting.” 

The design features allegorical figures with raised arms working to interlock their respective rings in the effort to be "UNITED". Incomplete rings indicate that there is still progress to be made. A secondary narrative built on the surface of each figure demonstrates that both sides have a foundation of ideals spanning generations that must be transformed into building blocks toward something greater

The dedication for this important monument is Friday September 22nd at Central High School where additional commemorations are happening this month to recognize the 60th anniversary of the integration of Central High. click for more info

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09/15/17 UPDATE: United by Clay Enoch and the National Sculptors' Guild was loaded onto the truck this morning and is on its way to Little Rock. The 10-foot bronze will be installed next week. The dedication for this important monument is Friday September 22nd at Central High School.

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04/25/16
​Clay Enoch and the National Sculptors' Guild's "United" has been selected for the 2017 Public Monument installation for a site at the historic Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
The winner was announced at the Sculpture at the River Market show Sunday at 3pm.

"Our similarities are more striking than our subtle differences"

Allegorical figures raise their arms to interlock their respective rings in the effort to be "UNITED". Incomplete rings indicate that there is still progress to be made. A secondary narrative demonstrates that both sides have a foundation of ideals spanning generations that must be transformed into building blocks toward something greater.

Two identical allegorical figures with subtle racial differences face each other raising their arms to interlock their respective rings and create this "United" composition.  The rings are incomplete circles to indicate that there is still progress to be made in this endeavor. The figures face each other to symbolize the importance of removing preconceptions and discovering the reality that we are all the same and all deserve equal opportunities.

A secondary narrative is etched onto the surface of the figures to be discovered close-up. These smaller figures demonstrate that both sides have a foundation of ideals spanning generations that must be transformed into building blocks towards something greater. The blocks are mirror finished so that the viewer can see themselves in the piece and understand we each have a role to play in the continued efforts that began with the Civil Rights Movement. 

Rendering for UNITED by Clay Enoch

Abbie Powers (left), an installation and performance artist, and sculptor Denny Haskew, both of Loveland, Colo., experiment with wrapping silk around a piece Sunday during the Sculpture at the River Market Show and Sale in Little Rock.

Art celebrates post-integration progress
Story published monday in LR demgazette...... By Jeannie Roberts Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
This article was published April 25, 2016 at 5:45 a.m.

PHOTO BY ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE / MITCHELL PE MASILUN

Little Rock contest’s winner to sculpt piece marking 60 years since Central High crisis
Shifting the focus from the historical scar on Little Rock to the strides that have been made in the nearly 60 years since Central High School was integrated was the goal of this year’s winner of the 2016 Sculpture at the River Market competition.
National Sculptors' Guild fellow Clay Enoch of Colorado Springs, Colo., was named Sunday as the recipient of a public art commission for his proposed piece called United. The sculpture, which will be 10 feet, 2 inches tall and 6 feet wide, will be installed in 2017 on the grounds of Central High School to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the desegregation crisis. The state gained national attention when on Sept. 4, 1957, nine black students attempted to enter the high school but were turned away by the Arkansas National Guard and an angry mob. On Sept. 25, 1957, U.S. Army troops, under orders from President Dwight Eisenhower, escorted the “Little Rock Nine” through the mobs and into the high school, officially ending segregation for the state. Enoch’s piece, which he will compose from silicon bronze and structural stainless steel, depicts two figures working together to connect two circles. “The thing that struck me is the history is kind of ugly,” Enoch said. “I wanted to try to shift the focus from the historical to the contemporary. There has just been so much progress made. I wanted to create something that showed the strides that have been made — something hopeful and uplifting.” 

Enoch and two other finalists — Kathleen Caricof and Denny Haskew, both of Colorado — were selected from 28 submissions. “This is cliche, but you’d like to be able to give all three of them the commission to do all three pieces because they were all three superb in every way,” said Dean Kumpuris, the founder of Sculpture at the River Market and a member of the Little Rock Board of Directors. Little Rock Central Principal Nancy Rousseau said she was thrilled about the commissioned piece and is eager to have it installed. “There were so many good pieces,” she said. “They’re all timeless. All had great concepts.”
Joseph Wright, a Central High senior, said the many sculptures to commemorate the desegregation crisis were inspiring to him not only as a black student at the school, but also as an aspiring artist. “The name United and the sculpture is very fitting,” Wright said. “I’ve taken an art class at Central every year. Sculpting is a passion of mine.”

Artist Longhua Xu of Hot Springs said the subject of the competition was especially meaningful to him as a 1989 immigrant from Shanghai. His piece Freedom commemorates the Central High School integration with a clay, three-sided sculpture of three representative students. One is a girl with a book held in the air, balanced on the tips of her fingers like a bird to illustrate the heights to which an education can take her. Another is a black male student with a backpack and the word “Explore” chiseled behind him. The third is a female Chinese student with a pen and notebook in her hand with the word “Express” embossed behind her. The last is representative of Xu’s daughter, Ann Xu, a 2010 graduate of the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts in Hot Springs whom Gov. Asa Hutchinson appointed to the school’s Board of Visitors last year. “As an Asian-American, I had to teach her that she needs to speak up, to have her voice heard,” Longhua Xu said. “She wanted to be class president but said that you had to be popular, smart and white to get the spot. I told her to speak up. She became student body president. Now she’s in medical school at Baylor.”

More than 800 sculptures from 48 juried artists from around the nation were displayed at the RiverMarket pavilions during the two-day show. It was the ninth show organized by the Sculpture at the River Market committee, which commissions artwork and then donates it to the city to be placed in various locations around Little Rock. Last year’s winner, Michael Warrick’s Mockingbird Tree, was installed last week at the northwest corner of Chenal Parkway and Chenal Valley Drive.

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