Two hundred years after the birth of Frederick Douglass, artist Olivia Kim and more than 200 volunteers created a series of life-size monuments of the celebrated African American statesman as part of a public art project entitled Re-Energizing the Legacy of Frederick Douglass. The statues were placed at locations historically significant to Mr. Douglass’ life in Rochester and were inspired by the eight-foot bronze statue created by Stanley W. Edwards currently located at Highland Park.

Olivia Kim will discuss the creation of the Douglass monuments and the challenges presented by creating a number of sculptures in a short period of time while overseeing a large number of volunteers. In one departure from the original Edwards monument, the Kim sculpture incorporates castings of the hands of Kenneth B. Morris, Jr, the great-great-great grandson of Frederick Douglass – uniting the past with the present and pointing the way to the future. Morris is co-founder and president of the Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives and is also the great-great-grandson of Booker T. Washington.

Kim is a graduate of School of the Arts in Rochester, received a BFA cum laude with Honorable Mention in Ceramic Sculpture at the School of Art and Design at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and received the Prize for Best Sculpture upon graduation at The Florence Academy of Art in Florence, Italy.  She studied and made her living with art in Italy for almost a decade before moving back to Rochester in 2010. Her work was included in the Douglass-inspired show at Rochester Contemporary Art Center, “No Soil Better.”  The fiberglass monuments are individually molded from an original Kim sculpture.

For additional information about the artist, please visit OliviaKimStudio.com.
To learn about the Frederick Douglass statues and see a map of their locations, go to DouglassTour.com.

This event is free and is open to the public.
Co-sponsored by the Perinton Historical Society and Fairport Public Library.
Registration is required through the Fairport Public Library and is limited. 
To register, visit https://fairportlibrary.libcal.com/event/7454057
or call the library at 585-223-9091.