Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship, on assignment for the Shelburne News
The Obama White House, National Civil Rights Museum and Little Rock Central High School: All have hosted bronze statues of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as part of a local man’s public art project.
Now, 15 years and 17 sculptures later, the last statue in the project has found its final home in Shelburne.
In the main entryway of Pierson Library, patrons are greeted by a bronze sculpture depicting King in two poses. The local artist, Chris Sharp, gave it in June to the Town of Shelburne, which lent it to the library to unveil in February.
“Art and symbols can make a difference, and public art symbolizes the values and beliefs that shape who and what we are,” Sharp said.
“I believe the sculpture of Dr. King symbolizes many essential qualities in our community, and it has the power to educate and inspire children and the people of Shelburne,” he said.
Fifteen years ago, Sharp recalls listening to an NPR story about the 50th anniversary of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, as well as the construction of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C.
When he heard the main sculptor for the project lived in China, he was inspired as an American to do his own tribute.
Between 2011 and 2012, Sharp created 17 bronze sculptures, part of his own not-for-profit public art project to commemorate King’s legacy. He donated 16 of them to cultural and civil rights institutions across the U.S.
The 17th statue was used as a “traveling teaching copy,” Sharp said. It moved around the country, making stops at the Smithsonian Institution and Boston University before it’s final stop just through the main doors of the Pierson Library.
The sculpture is composed of two figures of MLK cast in bronze. One is crouching in the foreground extending an arm outward. The other stands behind the first, raising an arm with three hands upward.
“I tried to portray his compassion and his miraculous ability to inspire change through oration,” Sharp said. “The crouching figure of Dr. King graciously extends a hand of guidance and support, and the standing figure is engaged in the passion of changing the world through sharing a dream of a brighter future.”
The right arm’s three hands represent King’s repetition of the phrase “I have a dream” within his speech.
“He repeats it three, four, five times throughout the speech,” Sharp said. “Each time, he’s reaching higher and asking us to reach higher in our awareness and our resolve to make change.”
When Sharp decided to donate the statue to the town, it was Matthew Lawless’ inaugural week as Shelburne town manager.
Despite him being new to Shelburne, embracing and exhibiting the sculpture was an easy decision for Lawless.
“Public art is an expression of public values, and a piece like that was a good way to show our civic value,” Lawless said. “With this particular piece, where we have a local artist with a work of national prominence as a donation to us, it was an easy thing to say yes to.”
The statue was unveiled to the public at the library on Feb. 21. Lawless and Sharp spoke, as did Ava Nnochiri, a 16-year-old at Champlain Valley Union High School.
She read the poem “The Hill We Climb” by Amanda Gorman, the same one Gorman recited at former President Joe Biden’s inauguration.
“I felt like this poem was the perfect one that correlated with the time we’re in right now and what the statue represents,” Nnochiri said.
“MLK always said that violence attracts the wrong attention, and with art and poetry, what you’re saying is being articulated in a peaceful way, so people will hear it better,” she said.
The statue will stand in the library’s entryway until the Juneteenth holiday on June 19. The town’s plans for the statue after that have not been finalized.
Sharp hopes the statue, by becoming part of the town, will serve as a permanent reminder of the values King represents.
“Moments like these speak not to me as the artist but to the value of art,” Sharp said. “It connects people to kindness and the axiomatic moments of history that can’t be forgotten and that are absolutely necessary to remember.”
