New Poe Boston Monument chosen

June 2012 Volume 23, Issue 1 www.bayvillage.net

EXCITING SCULPTURE DESIGN CHOSEN FOR NEARBY POE SQUARE
Stefanie Rocknak, a professional sculptor with a tandem career as a professor of philosophy in New York, has been selected to create a statue to commemorate Edgar Allan Poe in Boston, the city of his birth.
“Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most influential writers ever born in the City of Boston. As a city proud of its rich history, I’m so pleased to see this wonderful tribute come to fruition. The statue chosen for Poe Square is full of life and motion, and is sure to inspire residents and future writers alike for generations to come,” said Mayor Thomas Menino.
A five-member artist selection committee, empowered by Boston Art Commission guidelines, chose the design following a lengthy process.
“I propose to cast a life-size figure of Poe in bronze.
Just off the train, the figure would be walking south  
towards his place of birth, where his mother and
father once lived. Poe, with a trunk full of ideas—and worldwide success—is finally coming home,” said Rocknak of the design she calls Poe Returning to Boston.
The plan calls for the statue of one of America’s most influential writers to be installed in Edgar Allan Poe Square, a tree- lined, city-owned brick plaza at the intersection of Boylston Street and Charles Street South, just two blocks north of where Poe was born in 1809. Mayor Menino dedicated the location to Poe—and to his place in Boston’s literary heritage— during bicentennial celebrations in 2009.
Poe, who at age 18 returned to Boston to publish his first book, later developed a notoriously contentious relationship with the city’s literary elite, including with local editors who seized an opportunity to
criticize him upon another return to his native city for a reading in 1845, the year Poe’s most popular poem, The Raven, appeared. Poe’s final works were also published in Boston prior to his mysterious death in Baltimore in 1849.
An award-winning member of the Sculptors Guild whose artwork has appeared in numerous publications and in more than 40 exhibitions including at the Smithsonian. Rocknak is an associate professor of philosophy and the director of the Cognitive Science Program at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York, where she has taught since 2001. A graduate of Colby College in Waterville, Maine, with a B.A. in American Studies and Art History with a concentration in studio art, she holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Boston University. Her interests include the 18th- century Scottish philosopher David Hume (the subject of her forthcoming book), the philosophy of art, and the philosophy of the mind.
The Edgar Allan Poe Foundation of Boston appreciates support for the Poe Square Public Art Project, and the financial contributions of the City of Boston’s Edward Ingersoll Browne Trust Fund that made its planning and artist selection process
possible. Construction of a finalized design of the sculpture—which proponents envision by the end of next year—will depend on success of future fundraising initiatives to offset the anticipated $125,000 total cost of the project.
For more information about the Poe Square Public Art Project—and about how to contribute to the Poe Statue Fund—contact the Edgar Allan Poe Foundation of Boston at 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116, via email at info@poeboston.org, or care of http://poeboston.blogspot.com/
Images and text used with permission, Edgar Allan Poe Foundation. 

 Sunday June 10, 2012 National Firemen's Day is commemerated by Bob Shure's Boston Monument sculpture below.


Massachusetts Fallen Firefighters Memorial 2007
Outside Beacon Hill State/ Bowdoin St. and Ashburton PL. Robert Shure, Sculptor
Bronze

In this strong bronze pyramid, the artist depicts the constant war between man and fire as three firemen are positioned to fight a fire from every direction.


Efforts to construct a memorial to fallen firefighters began in 2000 with the formation of a non-profit as- sociation. After seven years of fund-raising and planning, this memorial was unveiled. Its design features three elements: the central bronze figures, a Ring of Honor consisting of bricks inscribed with the names of deceased firefighters, and the Firefighters’ Prayer and Bell, placed to the side of the figures and ring. Sculptor Robert Shure also designed the Boston Irish Famine Memorial, located near Downtown Crossing, and a Korean War memorial in Charlestown Navy Yard. (http://www.publicart- boston.com/content/massa- chusetts-fallen-firefighters) Nov. 27, 2010 ) 

The new Immigration Armenian Genocide Monument just completed.

The true story behind the this monument.

Most people think the Armenian Genocide was purely about Turks killing Armenians. However, a prime motivator for the killing of 1.5 million Armenians living in Turkey was greed and the redistribution of wealth. The Ottoman Turkish rulers wanted to take possession of the property belonging to its wealthy Armenian minority. They succeeded.

Throughout the deportation, eyewitness testimonies repeat stories of Turkish officials seeking bribes in the form of gold coins, rugs, jewelry, and so on.

Talaat Pasha (one of the architects of the Armenian Genocide) had the audacity to ask the American Ambassador Henry Morgenthau for the life insurance policies of his victims, because he reasoned the Turkish Government had become the beneficiary of the policies since his victims left no heirs.

Contrary to common belief, not all killings were perpetrated by chetes (criminal gangs) and Turkish soldiers. Townsfolk throughout Anatolia were promised the homes and belongings of their Armenian neighbors. After they were taught to hate the Armenians for being giavurs or gavoors, which means ’infidels’ or ‘non-believers’, it was frighteningly easy to whip the people into frenzied kitchen-knife welding mobs capable of murdering their neighbors.

The Turkish government enabled and encouraged the mass looting that took place everywhere the Armenians had once lived. In many instances, Turkey’s governing leaders relocated Kurds and Muslim peoples from the Balkans and other areas to depopulated Armenian communities (immediately following their mass killing and deportation). The Ottoman Turks’ destruction of its Armenian Christian minority created an ‘instant’ Muslim middle class.

Ottoman government archives containing records of land deeds are not accessible to descendants of the Armenian Turkish citizens who were either killed or expelled from their land. One of the obstacles to Turkey’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide is its fear of reparations.

Many of the Armenian churches not destroyed by the Turks were converted to Mosques. Some Armenian churches (including the sacred Aktamar site) are profitable enterprises employed by Turkey as part of its thriving tourism industry.

Even Mount Ararat, the ancestral homeland and pride of the Armenian people, now lies within Turkey’s borders. A few weeks ago, a Turkish tourism advertisement prominently featuring Mount Ararat with a depiction of Noah’s Ark. Of course, there was no mention of the Armenians, believed to be the descendants of Noah’s son, Japheth.

This beautiful well designed memorial incorporating , landscape design with greenery,a sculpture and a working water fountain is now a Boston treasure.

"Boston Bronze and Stone Speak To Us" would be honored to include this meaningful monument for all people within our second edition soon to be printed.

Greetings:

I just received this invitation concerning the Cyrus E. Dallin 150th Birthday festivities. All are welcome to learn more about this great sculpture and sculptor.


Mr. Gallo,

I am writing to let you know about the North End community's historical celebration in The Paul Revere Mall ("The Prado") this Sunday, April 29, 2012.  I have attached the press release for the event, which will celebrate:

·      the 150th anniversary of the birth of Cyrus Dallin;
·      The Paul Revere Mall as a historical monument; and
·      The Prado's importance as a community park and gathering space for the North End.

The event will last from Noon until 4PM and will include a main program of welcoming remarks from neighborhood organizers and elected officials from 2:00 to 2:30.  We expect the event will be attended by more than two dozen members of four generations of the Dallin family, including Jean Dallin Doherty, Cyrus Dallin’s granddaughter, who attended the September 1940 dedication as a very young girl.  Paul Revere, Jr., who also attended the 1940 dedication, will be at the event, as well.

On either end of the main program, beginning at Noon and continuing through the afternoon, several speakers will give informal historical presentations at various locations in The Prado.  Presentations include:

·      Readings of Longfellow's 1861 "Paul Revere's Ride" and Cyrus Dallin's 1939 "Paul Revere" by the Cyrus Dallin Art Museum
·      "Cyrus Dallin's Artistic Legacy," by Christine Sharborogh, Trustee, Cyrus Dallin Art Museum
·      "Cyrus Dallin and his Paul Revere: 58 Years of Perseverance," by Aimee Taberner, Co-Chair, Cyrus Dallin Art Museum
·      "Paul Revere: The Man Behind the Myth," by Nina Zannieri, Executive Director, Paul Revere Memorial Association
·      "Arthur Shurcliff, Henry Shepley and their Creation of The Prado," by David Kubiak and Anne Pistorio, North End/Waterfront Residents' Association
·      "The Pride of Later Generations: North End History Remembered in The Prado," by Alex Goldfeld, President, North End Historical Society.

A companion lecture program will be held at Old North Church on Thursday evening, May 17, 2012, featuring talks by art curator Rebecca Reynolds about Dallin's Paul Revere and by historian Alex Goldfeld about the neighborhood's history represented in The Prado.

We hope you will be able attend on the 29th, and I would be happy to discuss this event further with you.  I can also be reached at 617-833-9564.

Dave Kubiak
Dallin-Prado Event Organizing Committee

April 23, 2012: For Immediate Release by the Edgar Allan Poe Foundation of Boston


A new sculpture is coming to Boston! Please read below.



SCULPTURE HONORING EDGAR ALLAN POE IN BOSTON CHOSEN AFTER LENGTHY REVIEW PROCESS

POE TO RETURN TO CITY OF HIS BIRTH...WILL BE SEEN STRIDING ACROSS SQUARE DEDICATED TO HIM

TRIUMPHANT POE RETURNING TO BOSTON…SCULPTOR CHOSEN FROM 265 ARTISTS

ARTIST-PHILOSOPHER SELECTED TO CREATE POE STATUE

BOSTON – Stefanie Rocknak, a professional sculptor with a tandem career as a professor of philosophy in New York, has been selected to create a statue to commemorate Edgar Allan Poe in Boston, the city of his birth.

“Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most influential writers ever born in the City of Boston. As a city proud of its rich history, I’m so pleased to see this wonderful tribute come to fruition.  The statue chosen for Poe Square is full of life and motion, and is sure to inspire residents and future writers alike for generations to come,” said Mayor Tom Menino of Rocknak’s design.

A five-member artist selection committee, empowered by Boston Art Commission guidelines, has made the decision following a lengthy process involving intense public scrutiny of design proposals created by three competing finalists. The finalists were picked from a pool of 265 artists who applied for the competitive public art commission from 42 states and 13 countries.

“I propose to cast a life-size figure of Poe in bronze. Just off the train, the figure would be walking south towards his place of birth, where his mother and father once lived. Poe, with a trunk full of ideas—and worldwide success—is finally coming home,” said Rocknak of the design she calls Poe Returning to Boston.

“The sense of Poe returning triumphant with creative ideas bursting forth from his suitcase is very appealing,” according to project manager Jean Mineo.

“The review committee, and public input, conveyed great excitement with the dynamic sense of movement, accessible style, and Poe’s creative energy expressed in the proposal. There is also strong support for Steff’s approachable, ground level statue that helps humanize Poe and place him in the context of this active neighborhood,” Mineo said.

The plan calls for the statue of one of America’s most influential writers to be installed in Edgar Allan Poe Square, a tree-lined, city-owned brick plaza at the intersection of Boylston Street and Charles Street South, just two blocks north of where Poe was born in 1809. Mayor Menino dedicated the location to Poe—and to his place in Boston’s literary heritage—during bicentennial celebrations in 2009.

Poe, who at age 18 returned to Boston to publish his first book, later developed a notoriously contentious relationship with the city’s literary elite, including with local editors who seized an opportunity to criticize him upon another return to his native city for a reading in 1845, the year Poe’s most popular poem, The Raven, appeared. Poe’s final works were also published in Boston prior to his mysterious death in Baltimore in 1849.

An award-winning member of the Sculptors Guild whose artwork has appeared in numerous publications and in more than 40 exhibitions including at the Smithsonian, Stefanie Rocknak is an associate professor of philosophy and the director of the Cognitive Science Program at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York, where she has taught since 2001. A graduate of Colby College in Waterville, Maine, with a B.A. in American Studies and Art History with a concentration in studio art, she holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Boston University. Her interests include the 18th-century Scottish philosopher David Hume (the subject of her forthcoming book), the philosophy of art, and the philosophy of the mind.

Describing her dual roles as artist and philosopher in Colby Magazine last November, Rocknak said: “Initially I kept them totally separate … but making representational art is a manifestation of my philosophical belief that all art doesn’t have to be conceptual.” She said her figurative artwork, usually created in wood, is “cathartic” representing “a way to externalize certain emotions.”

The Edgar Allan Poe Foundation of Boston appreciates support for the Poe Square Public Art Project, and the financial contributions of the City of Boston’s Edward Ingersoll Browne Trust Fund that made its planning and artist selection process possible. Construction of a finalized design of the proposed sculpture—which proponents envision by the end of next year—will depend on success of future fundraising initiatives to offset the anticipated $125,000 total cost of the project.

For more information about the Poe Square Public Art Project—and about how to contribute to the Poe Statue Fund—contact the Edgar Allan Poe Foundation of Boston at 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116, via email at info@poeboston.org, or care of http://poeboston.blogspot.com/

The Edgar Allan Poe Foundation of Boston, Inc., is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) corporation organized exclusively for the charitable educational purpose of honoring Poe in the city where he was born in 1809.

Happy Birthday Cyrus E. Dallin from Boston.

"You may be familiar with Cyrus E. Dallins Boston monuments and statues around Boston. "Paul Revere", "Anna Hutchinson" and "Appeal To The Great Spirit" are just some of his spiritualistic memorial sculptures inspiring all of us.

Dallin, the son of Thomas and Jane (Hamer) Dallin, was born in Springville, Utah, November 1861 to a family then belonging to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. At age 19, he moved to Boston to study sculpture with T. H. Bartlett, and in 1883 entered a competition for an equestrian statue of Paul Revere. No entries were selected, but over the next 58 years Dallin made seven versions of a monument of Paul Revere.

In Boston, he became a colleague of Augustus St. Gaudens and a close friend of John Singer Sargent. He married Vittoria Colonna Murray in 1891, moved to Arlington, Massachusetts in 1900, where he lived for the rest of his life, and there raised three children. He was a member of the faculty of Massachusetts Normal Art School, since renamed Massachusetts College of Art and Design, from 1899 to 1941.

He created more than 260 works monuments and statues, including well known Boston statues of Paul Revere and of Native Americans. He also sculpted the statue of the Angel Moroni atop the Salt Lake City Temple, which has become a symbol for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and is generally the pattern for future Angel Moroni statues on the spires of subsequent LDS Temples.

Dallin was probably the first American Sculptor sensitive enough to depict American Indians as humanist spiritualistic human beings in his statues and monuments, because he grew up with Indians as a boy in Utah. Cyrus E.Dallin conveyed this above sensitivity through his Boston bronze and stone sculptures.

Happy Birthday from Joe Gallo, author of "Boston Bronze and Stone Speak To Us", a Boston guidebook of historical story telling of monuments and statues our found on Boston's parks and streets.

Edgar Allan Poe Monument, Boston, MA

Proposed Edgar Allan Poe Monument on Edgar Allan Poe Square at the corner of Charles and Boylston Streets Boston, MA is coming soon with proper future funding. "Boston Bronze and Stone Speak To Us "second edition shall surely place Poe new monument in our book for all to share!

Did you know Poe was born at this above location?

"One of the best-kept secrets in Boston's literary history concerns the most influential writer ever born here: Edgar Allan Poe. And the secret is this: he was born here! Over the past 200 years, leading up to the bicentennial of Poe's birth on January 19, 2009, his connections to other East Coast cities -- Richmond, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York -- have been celebrated and memorialized. Finally, Mayor Thomas M. Menino dedicated this above location as Edgar Allan Poe Square with a plaque.

While each of these cities hosts a museum or historic house that commemorates Poe's standing as a local author, Boston has made itself conspicuous for its apparent determination to treat the master of mystery -- America's first great critic and a foundational figure in the development of popular culture -- like an undeserving orphan.

The walking tour made possible by this brochure ( The Raven's Trail) offered by www.poeboston is designed to begin a new era in the way Poe's connection to Boston is understood and experienced. While it's true that Poe fought a career-long battle against Boston-area authors, whose moralistic poems and stories sounded to him like the croaking frogs, it's also true that he had positive feelings about the place." (The Raven's Trail 2009 ,The Edgar Allan Poe Foundation of Boston, Inc.)

Please visit for more information poeboston.org

Boston is America America is Boston!