ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, July 10, 1996 TAG: 9607100026
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
The process leading to the unveiling of the Arthur Ashe monument took many turns and mixed politics and public discussion about public art and how and where to best honor Ashe.
|1992| Richmond artist Paul DiPasquale takes a carload of children to a brief Ashe appearance at a tennis clinic in Richmond's Byrd Park.
The image of the former champion teaching children becomes the inspiration for the statue.
Ashe later suggests that books be included in a piece that could stand at a proposed African-American sports hall of fame based on his 1988 book about black athletes, "A Hard Road to Glory."
DiPasquale plans to do a statue. He meets or speaks with various city leaders, decides to finance the initial work and then seek private and or corporate funding for the bronze casting and the installation of the monument.
|February 6, 1993| Ashe dies from complications from AIDS, which he contracted through a blood transfusion.
|December, 1993| The board of Virginia Heroes Inc., a nonprofit organization founded by Ashe in 1990, votes to raise money for the statue. The organization's mission is to bring successful Virginians to public schools to share these messages: Stay in School, Avoid Drugs and Violence.
|December 1994| L. Douglas Wilder, a friend of Ashe's and the first elected black governor in the nation, urges officials to send "a transcending message" by placing the DiPasquale statue on Monument Avenue.
|June 1995| Richmond's Planning Commission, which originally was to have final say on the project, approves Monument Avenue as the site.
Statue-backers from Virginia Heroes Inc. say that limiting public debate was part of their strategy in expediting the political process of gaining city approval.
Critics, shocked at the sudden reality of DiPasquale's initiative, say the statue's design makes Ashe look like a person being held-up, a cactus, or someone holding a "Will work for food" sign.
There is such furor, that the City Council agrees to take up the issue.
|July 1995| One hundred people speak at a public hearing held by City Council, which approves the Monument Avenue location.
Also, a critical group, Citizens for Excellence in Public Art - led by a prominent Richmond art gallery owner - circulates a petition to block the monument and hold an international competition for a higher-quality statue.
|August 1995| Despite continuing protests and community discussion about the statue, ground is broken on Monument Avenue.
|December 1995| Commission of Architectural Review approves the statue, with slight modifications to the arms and the angle of the head. Poet Maya Angelou is mentioned as a possible author of an inscription.
|January 1996| Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe writes in the Richmond Times-Dispatch that her late husband authorized a statue for a sports hall of fame, not for Monument Avenue, and not in a sweatsuit in DiPasquale's chosen pose.
She also says she opposes the Monument Avenue site, unlike other Ashe family members.
|March 1996| Planning Commission recommends to City Council a proposal by Citizens for Excellence in Public Art to raise $1 million and hold an international statue competition for a permanent Monument Avenue statue to Ashe and other black heroes. It also approves DiPasquale's statue, which would move to the African American sports hall of fame, when constructed.
City Council subsequently derails Citizens for Excellence in Public Art, dismissing it as a nearly all-white group that is non-inclusive to blacks. Council also approves a plan to move DiPasquale's statue to the sports hall, though many, including Doug Wilder, doubt it will ever be built.
|July 10| Ashe monument scheduled to be unveiled.
As of this writing, Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe had declined the invitation to attend.
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. July 10, 1943 - Feb. 6, 1993by CNB