This is a follow-up to my earlier work on this landmark 1850s RI Public Art commission.
Performing “the Public” in Public Art:
Rhode
Island’s First Public Statue (1858) in Historic Context
Nancy Austin, PhD
Independent Scholar
(Newport, RI)
“This
is the first public statue in Rhode Island!
Let it
be but the beginning of a phalanx of statues!”
(1858)
So proclaimed Providence, RI artist Francis Hoppin at the 1858 dedication
of this larger than life statue of Benjamin Franklin in downtown Westminster
St. where it stood proudly in a niche of the new Franklin Lyceum until that
building’s demolition in 1926. The statue shows Benjamin Franklin as the common
man printer who stepped up to help his country as a diplomat during the
American Revolution.
My proposed paper provides three historical
contexts for thinking about this work of public art that is now owned by Roger
Williams University. First, who was the “public” that was being newly addressed
in 1858, since this was not the first time sculpture was added to either a
Providence building or an outdoor location?
Second, how might the Franklin Lyceum’s downtown location on the West
Side of Providence and Hoppin’s use of the word “phalanx” direct our attention
to historic and endlessly negotiated East Side/West Side class issues that
impact defining Providence as a whole city? Three, the ownership provenance of
this statue from Lyceum to bank/s to RWU is a timely opportunity to discuss best
practices for preserving cultural patrimony in a nation such as America that
relies on private/public stewardship of the common good. How might RWU best
honor this responsibility?
3 Links to my earlier work: Where’s Ben?; Contested site from Turks Head to the Arcade; Tefft’s West Side Lyceum and Art Museum proposal
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