Save Outdoor Sculpture! . A Survey of Sculpture in Vtrginia Compiled by Sarah Shields Driggs with John L. Orrock J ' Save Outdoor Sculpture! A Survey of Sculpture in Virginia Compiled by Sarah Shields Driggs with John L. Orrock SAVE OUTDOOR SCULPTURE Table of Contents Virginia Save Outdoor Sculpture! by Sarah Shields Driggs . I Confederate Monuments by Gaines M Foster . 3 An Embarrassment of Riches: Virginia's Sculpture by Richard Guy Wilson . 5 Why Adopt A Monument? by Richard K Kneipper . 7 List of Sculpture in Vrrginia . 9 List ofVolunteers . 35 Copyright Vuginia Department of Historic Resources Richmond, Vrrginia 1996 Save Outdoor Sculpture!, was designed and SOS! is a project of the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, and the National prepared for publication by Grace Ng Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Property. SOS! is supported by major contributions from Office of Graphic Communications the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Getty Grant Program and the Henry Luce Foundation. Additional assis­ Virginia Department of General Services tance has been provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, Ogilvy Adams & Rinehart, Inc., TimeWarner Inc., the Contributing Membership of the Smithsonian National Associates Program and Cover illustration: ''Ligne Indeterminee'~ Norfolk. Members of its Board, as well as many other concerned individuals. (Photo by David Ha=rd) items like lawn ornaments or commercial signs, formed around the state, but more are needed. and museum collections, since curators would be By the fall of 1995, survey reports were Virginia SOS! expected to survey their own holdings. pouring in, and the results were engrossing. Not The definition was thoroughly analyzed at only were our tastes and priorities as a Common­ by Sarah Shields Driggs the workshops, but gradually the DHR staff wealth being examined, but each individual sur­ reached the conclusion that it was best to allow veyor's forms were telling us what they had dis~ volunteers to survey whatever caught their eye. covered personally. Several of the volunteers O ucdoor sculptures enhance America's parks, more discoveries to make. The main intention of SOS! is to develop advo­ wrote letters and called to say how much they had plazas, traffic islands and courthouse squares. With the ambitious goal of inventorying cates for art, to challenge people to open their enjoyed the project, and that they'd never look at They may celebrate heroes, commemorate events every publicly accessible outdoor sculpture in the eyes and appreciate the art around them. And the world the same way again. Many said that from our history or simply beautify a space. United States, the organizers of SOS! chose to since DHR was interested in hearing what each their whole definition of art had changed. Public sculpture forms a visible summary of our recruit volunteers for several reasons. Local vol­ community considered their cultural resourc , Shon essays included here make some pre­ vision of ourselves and our communities; yet often unteers would know where sculpture was located, whether it was an obelisk or a world-famous hot li.mfaary assessment of the scope of Virginia's little thought is given to the sculpture's upkeep. and they would have better knowledge of archival dog stand, these guidelines were eliminating OJlle s ulprure, bur much more information can be Acid rain, pollution, acci­ resources for research. Most importantly, though, potentially interesting surveys. So our definition culled from the files for future scholarship. The dents, vandalism and the volunteers would still be there with their became more inclusive as the survey progressed, urveys can be consulted in the archives at the neglect have taken their knowledge and commitment to the sculpture afrer and this is reflected in the list of sculpcur . If a Department of Historic Resources and through toll on many sculp­ SOS! was over. region was surveyed early in the project, tl1e list Integrated Preservation Software, a resource data­ tures. Save Outdoor The project was coordinated in Virginia by may follow the original SOS! guidelines more base u ed by DHR. Results of the surveys will be Sculpture!, or SOS!, is an the Department of Historic Resources (DHR) rigorously. added ro ch Inventory of American Sculpture, a unprecedented nationwide with help from the Virginia Commission for the SOS! also hopes that the entbusfasm gener­ computerized database at the National Museum campaign to identify and Arts. During 1994 and 1995 over 200 volunteers ated locally will have significant long-term bene­ of American Arr. focus attention on outdoor attended training workshops and fanned out fits in each community. Public educacioo and Virginia's year-long SOS! survey was part of sculpture. across the state to search for sculpture. These vol­ local efforts to clean and maintain ch, rreasures a nationwide effort that has become the largest The National Institute for unteers counted and assessed the condition of are two possible results. A common mi con ep­ volunteer culrural project in America's history. the Conservation of Cultural over 700 works of art-including monuments to tion that plagues outdoor culpture is that if it cuJpcure bas been honored, a tremendous Property and the Smithsonian Confederate and Revolutionary heroes, religious was intended to be out in the elements, it must amount of information has been uncovered and Institution's National Museum of statues, folk art and contemporary sculpture. have been constructed to last forever. No one recorded, and many volunteers have had their eyes American Art initiated SOS!, Inventory reports list the artist, title, date, materi­ expects a car left outside to last a decade without opened to public art. By doing so, SOS! has stim­ inspired by the campaign to clean al, dimensions, location, history and condition of care, but most communities think nothing of ulated interest in caring for sculpture and treating the Statue of Liberty. SOS! aspires to each sculpture. Volunteers worked in teams or leaving a sculpture out for a century or more with it as a vital part of our rich cultural heritage. focus the attention of Americans on alone to inventory anywhere from one to 40 no maintenance. The SOS! survey includes an the sculpture that surrounds them in pieces. Distance travelled ranged from several elementary condition report for which volunteers Sarah Shields Driggs, an architectural historian, their own home towns. The counties to stepping into their garden. Some were coordinated Virgi.nia Save Outdoor Sculpture! for the were briefed during the training workshops. Statue of Liberty teaches us vol­ able to find programs from dedication cere­ Often communities will mobilize to clean and Department ofHistoric Resources. umes about our heritage. monies, articles and historic photographs. Some care for their local sculpture when they discover Photo on facing page: McCallum More Garden, What can we learn volunteers interviewed artists, and even talk to the hazards it is facing. Several groups have Mecklenburg County. (Photo by Brenda Arriaga) from our own town local reporters about the works they surveyed, square? while others were frustrated in their attempts to This booklet is a short find even a title for the sculpture in their area. summary of what we've What is outdoor sculpture? This was the learned so far. Volunteers most discussed question at the training work­ for Virginia SOS! sur­ shops. SOS! defined it as veyed over 700 sculp­ A three-dimensional artwork that is cast, tures and related objects carved, modeled, fabricated, fired or assem­ between September of bled in materials such as stone, wood, 1994 and October of metal, ceramic or plastic, located in an out­ 1995. A list of the sculp­ door setting, and is accessible to the public. tures is contained here, This left many things unsaid, but it is a start. along with thoughts by Types of sculpture that would be omitted were two scholars and an grave markers/tombstones, commemorative works activist on the meaning of that were not three-dimensional or sculptural the list. Sculpture is (such as obelisks), architectural structures such as still being identified, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, architectural orna­ and there are many mentation such as a keystone, mass-produced "Fountain ofFaith': Falls Church. (Photo by David A. Edwards) 2 Interpreting the meaning of this Confederate statuary proves difficult and, of late, Confederate Monuments increasingly controversial. The sculpture itself contributes to this. Only a few (those in by Gaines M. Foster Arlington cemetery and at the Virginia Military Institute, for examples) take allegorical form. C onfeder~te monuments, silent sentinels of a patterns. The statue in Bath County, for example, And although memorials to officers are often Lost Cause, dot the physical and crowd the sym­ was made by McNeel, and local lore, probably heroic and martial, typical monuments to enlisted bolic landscape of the South. In the first decades apocryphal, has it that the company first sent a men are surprisingly matter-of-fact. They rarely after the Civil War, white southerners most often Union soldier. But Virginia's Confederate monu­ have martial poses; most feature a soldier at rest, placed Confederate monuments of funereal ments are probably more numerous and possibly not in attack or even at the ready. Such a pose design, simple obelisks for example, in cemeteries. more diverse and artistic than those of any other can hardly be interpreted as a call to arms or as Later, in the 1890s and, increasingly after 1900, southern state. Several factors contributed to this. any very definitive statement. Like the designs, they erected soldiers in the center of town. These Many of the war's battles took place in Virginia, the inscriptions offer limited help in fixing an became the most common statues since the Richmond served as the capital of the interpretation of these monuments.