Existing comment:
Downtown BID Callboxes
DowntownDC Business Improvement District Callboxes, Washington, DC. Bronze Portraits of four African American Women and five Caucasian Women who helped shape Washington, DC. The Artwork is located on nine historic cast iron fire and police callboxes. Charles Bergen Studios was selected by the Downtown BID in a national artist call to create this artwork. The BID secured matching grant funding from the DCCAH for this $175,000.00 project. In honor of the 100th Anniversary of Woman's Suffrage in 2020, artwork depicting nine extraordinary woman who worked, lived and or were associated with the locations of the Callboxes will be created. Bronze relief portraits of nine women as well as painted stainless steel which has been waterjet cut, with painted stenciled words on the Callboxes symbolizing their achievements, talents and organizations.
Participating /Advising Artists Darian Lassiter, Nathan Cousins, Mathew Andrews, Tsahai Pettiford, Amber Logan, Hakeem Olayinka, Aaron Rogers, Brandon, Bailey, Charles Bergen, Elsabe Dixon and George Tkabladze.
(left) Callbox 2 - 13th and G sts NW - Flora Molton
Flora Molton (1908-1990) was a blues and gospel musician whose primary stage was the street, first at Seventh and F, and later 11th and F. Born visually impaired in Louisa County, Virginia, Molton moved to Washington in 1937 and soon began relying on her musical, and preaching, talents. She became part of DC's burgeoning folk and blues community in the 1960s and in the next decades performed at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Library of Congress, and many other places. She also recorded three albums – but continued singing on the street until six months before her death. |