After years of fundraising the date is finally here, gently rapping, rapping in Boston's door
For details, read the Boston Magazine article by Steve Annear here:
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/arts-entertainment/blog/2014/04/03/edgar-allan-poe-statue-will-unveiled-october/
Edgar Allan Poe Square Public Art Project
JAN. 2014 PROJECT UPDATE: 'NEVERMORE' FOREVERMORE: BRINGING POE BACK TO BOSTON
Click on the following red link for a Jan. 2014 project news update:
http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2014/01/24/edgar-allan-poe-statue-developments-in-boston/
APRIL 2012 PROJECT ANNOUNCEMENT:
SCULPTURE HONORING EDGAR ALLAN POE IN BOSTON CHOSEN AFTER LENGTHY REVIEW PROCESS
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.
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@bostonpoe.org,
or care of http://bostonpoe.org
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