After several years of planning, the first statues will be added to a monument at the State Capitol honoring the lives, legacy and achievements of Virginia women.
Artist Ivan Schwartz created the statue of Thomas Jefferson inside the Capitol in 2012. Now, he’s commissioned to create the first 4 of 12 bronze statues for the Virginia women’s monument. “When you write a novel it helps to put names to your characters, and so ‘Voices from the Garden’ helped frame what it was that we were trying to do. And then quite literally we designed the plaza around ‘Voices from the Garden.’”
The completed statues of Pamunkey Chief Cockacoeske, Jamestown settler Ann Burras Laydon, influential African-American educator Virginia E. Randolph and women’s suffrage advocate Adele Clark will be unveiled on October 14th.
