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Ashland art piece spurs debate By Morgan Rothborne Aug 20, 2022 12:30 AM A A Shown is an artistic rendering of the sculpture “Crystallizing Our Call: Ancestor’s Future,” which is being discussed by Ashland officials. [Courtesy photo] Every seat was taken Tuesday at the Ashland City Council meeting, with some people clustered together along the back of the room. One woman held a cardboard sign to protest the delay in approving a new public art installation titled “Crystallizing Our Call: Ancestor’s Future.” A proposed sculpture that drew the crowd is the work of several groups, including Black Alliance and Social Empowerment, also known as BASE, and Say Their Names Collective. The proposed sculpture is intended to be a permanent art installation in the spirit of the grassroots “Say Their Names” T-shirt memorial in Ashland’s Railroad Park. “Crystallizing Our Call” unanimously was approved June 17 by the Public Arts Commission and also approved by Ashland Parks and Recreation Commission for a site in Ashland Creek Park. The final step is approval by Ashland City Council. A post Monday on the Say Their Names Memorial Facebook page encouraged supporters of “Crystallizing Our Call” to attend the council meeting and voice support for the piece. “I see art as being the common ground among cultures,” said Ashland resident Tony Foster. “I can’t even explain with words the amount of significance this art installation has to all members of this community.” Some in Ashland have concerns about the way the piece has moved through the approval process. City Councilor Stefani Seffinger, the council liaison to the arts commission, former arts commission Chair Andy Stallman and former arts Commissioner Sandra Friend all sent emails to commission Chair Ken Engelund expressing concern the piece was approved without following the procedures and rules required of a public art installation in Ashland city code. The artist, Micah BlackLight, stated in his presentation to the arts commission that the piece would be funded through donations from the community. He asked the city to provide the funding for installation and site preparation. In an email, Stallman wrote that he interprets the code as allowing either a donated gift or a city-funded installation, but not a mixture of the two. “Due to the fact there is already concern from the public and questions about process not being followed, I suggest you pull back this project ... until there is time to review the process and determine if it was followed,” said Seffinger’s email to Engelund. “The concerns that have been expressed to me have included questions about the application process, exclusion of some individuals and direction only to consider BIPOC candidates,” Seffinger said. According to the Say Their Names Memorial Facebook page and the BASE website, the proposed sculpture was shepherded by community groups rather than the Public Arts Commission. The groups decided the final selection panel for the piece and the artist would be Black community members. “I certainly would like to see these issues ironed out before this is brought to Council, as I want this to be a uniting project for the community,” Seffinger wrote in her email. Liza Ebony, who testified at the meeting via Zoom, identified herself as a member of the final selection panel for the piece. She equated asking for diversity and the inclusion of white members in the selection panel to including men in questions of women’s reproductive rights. Cassie Preskenis, a member of the arts commission, wrote in an email to city officials that she has lost sleep over the delay in approval for the piece because she believes the project is being stalled not because it did not follow procedure, but because it has upset white people. “Here in Ashland, this inspiring Black-led art project is receiving an unwelcome reception masked in institutional policy,” Preskenis said in her testimony. She said the project has gone through the public approval process properly, and referencing comments on social media calling the piece “dark,” she said this reaction highlights why the city of Ashland needs an art piece memorializing 200 Black lives. She brought her three children to the meeting, and each presented written statements in support of the piece. The second to last to speak on behalf of the piece was BlackLight, who said, “I am not coming from a place of anger, though some people chose to experience that and let it run through them. I’m not coming from a place of trying to ram anything through; what I am trying to do is begin conversation. “Some of those conversations will be really challenging; some of those conversations will not be easy,” he said. No date has been set for Council action on the piece, but the arts commission will discuss it during their Aug. 19 meeting. Reach Mail Tribune reporter Morgan Rothborne at [email protected] or 541-776-4487. Follow her on Twitter @MRothborne.