When Meredith Bergmann’s Women’s Rights Pioneers Monument is unveiled on August 26, 2020, it will, in essence, break Central Park’s bronze gender barrier.

A panel discussion this month will explore the process of conceiving, advocating and fundraising for the creation of this groundbreaking public sculpture. The panelists will be artist Meredith Bergmann, Pam Elam, and Coline Jenkins, with moderator Clare Bowes Sheridan. Breaking the Bronze Ceiling: Envisioning & Creating the First Ever Monument to Real Women in Central Park—A Panel Discussion, is on Sunday, March 29 at 3:00pm, Meet & Greet: 2:30-2:55pm. The event (tickets online) will be held at: RoCA / Rockland Center for the Arts (27 South Greenbush Rd, West Nyack, NY 10994; tel. 845-358-0877; www.rocklandartcenter.org)

The journey of envisioning and creating this sculpture was spearheaded by Monumental Women, an all-volunteer, not-for-profit organization created in 2014, with the goal of creating the first statue of real women in Central Park.  This journey had its own share of hurdles. Contending with NYC bureaucracy and permits was as massive a task as the process of sculpting the work. To fund the statue, Monumental Women has raised over $1.5 million, with the help of private donations and the Girl Scouts. 

The three women of the Women’s Rights Pioneers Monument were selected by Monumental Women for their historic victories in women’s suffrage, women’s civil rights and the abolition of slavery. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and Sojourner Truth will make history again by becoming the first statues to depict real-life women in NYC’s iconic Central Park sited on Literary Walk, near Sir Walter Scott and William Shakespeare. Of the 840 acres in the 166-year- old park, where there are 23 statues of men, there are only a handful of sculptures of women— all based on fictional characters. Although each of the three women are shown hard at work, having a vigorous conversation, it is Bergmann’s hope that viewers will make up their own story about who is saying what.

Bergmann’s powerful homage to these remarkable women depicts a coalition of like-minded people and serves as an inspiration for further study and activism by young girls and women of all ages. With the Women’s Rights Pioneers Monument, Monumental Women and Bergmann begin to correct the scarcity of commemorative sculptures highlighting women’s achievements.

When the 14-foot monument is unveiled on August 26, 2020, it will be the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving women the right to vote. 2020 is also the 200th anniversary of the birth of Susan B. Anthony.

The distinguished panelists will discuss the 6-year journey of this process and its significance.

Meredith Bergmann has been creating both private and public sculpture that addresses complex themes, such as social justice and human rights, in an accessible, beautiful, and provocative way.  Bergmann’s largest public commission, unveiled in 2003, was for the Boston Women’s Memorial on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston’s Back Bay. Her FDR Hope Memorial for New York City’s Roosevelt Island is to be completed in Spring 2020.

Pam Elam, the President of Monumental Women, has worked in various capacities for New York City government and its elected officials including: Coordinator at the Mayor’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs; Chief of Staff to a NYS Senator; and Deputy Chief of Staff to the Manhattan Borough President. Elam made her first public speech in support of Women’s Rights when she was 13 years old and has been organizing for women ever since, including in 2004 when she led the effort to approve legislation naming “Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton Corner” near the site where Anthony and Stanton published their newspaper, The Revolution.

Coline Jenkins is a legislator, author, television producer, and Vice President of Monumental Women. Jenkins comes from a long line of women activists including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, her great-great grandmother, and Harriot Stanton Blatch, her great-grandmother. Through the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Trust, of which she is co-founder and President, she is instrumental both in the advancement of women's rights and the preservation of the history of the women’s rights movement.

The moderator, Clare Bowes Sheridan, is the producer, writer and host of “Crossroads of Rockland History,” an award-winning radio show presented by The Historical Society of Rockland County. Before joining the Historical Society of Rockland County, she was Senior Vice President, Business Director at Sotheby’s for many years.

SuffrageForward.

This program is a collaboration of SuffrageForward and the Rockland Center for the Arts. SuffrageForward’s mission is not only to celebrate women’s right to vote, but to empower women now and in the future and to create awareness among all people of the strength and resiliency of girls and women.  For more information about SuffrageForward, visit  https://www.suffrageforward.org/ or call Paulette Ross at 845-480-1693.

We invite you to join us for the Breaking the Bronze Ceiling Panel Discussion on Sunday, March 29th, at 3:00pm. Tickets are: $25 general admission; $20 for seniors, RoCA members, and students over age 18; free to those under 18.

To purchase tickets visit: www.SuffrageForward.org or www.rocklandartcenter.org

Proceeds from ticket sales will benefit SuffrageForward.

You are invited to the unveiling of the Women’s Rights Pioneers Monument on August 26, 2020 in Central Park. No tickets necessary for access to this public forum.