Gender and racial inequality is among the most critical issues facing the world today. Now, artists around the world are banding together to spark the change for equality in a beautiful way, with Statues For Equality.
This global movement is on a mission to balance the gender and racial representation in public art and create tangible change one statue at a time. By creating everlasting bronze statues of some of the most inspirational women of our time, Statues For Equality honors women’s contributions to society and spreads their inspiration to the world. The goal is to reach complete gender equality of public sculptures (50%) across the globe by 2025.
Global public artists and activists, Gillie and Marc created Statues For Equality after a reflection of their own work. They discovered that over the past 15 years they had many sculpture commissions of men but only 1% of woman! They dug a little deeper and found that this was not unique for them but a global issue.
Nova Peris Statue Unveiling
Nova Peris is a proud indigenous woman who has broken through many glass ceilings in both politics and sports. She rose to fame in 1996 when she represented Australia at the Olympics in hockey, becoming the first Aboriginal person to win an Olympic gold medal. The next year she switched to track becoming a double gold medalist at the 1998 Commonwealth Games. While she was competing at an Olympic level in two different sports, she was also juggling being a mother.
Nova then entered politics, becoming Australia’s first Aboriginal woman elected to Federal Parliament becoming a strong voice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. She has inspired so many indigenous Australians, letting them know they have a voice and they can shoot for the stars.
Nova's statue was unveiled on the 14th July coming off the back of NAIDOC Week in Australia.
Statue of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Gillie and Marc
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has devoted her life’s work to promoting equal justice for all as the pioneering director of the Women’s Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, arguing landmark cases on gender equality before the Supreme Court of the United States; as a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; and as the second woman to serve as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Justice Ginsburg’s lifelong commitment to equal justice has inspired millions worldwide. Artists Gillie and Marc explain their endeavour, “We had the honor and privilege to create Justice Ginsburg’s distinguished likeness in everlasting bronze as a part of Statues for Equality." The artists continue, “With the two steps on its large base representing the Supreme Court and the climb she made to get there, the work is designed to provide the public with an opportunity to stand at her side, and gain inspiration from her journey fighting for equal rights.”
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NEW YORK CITY LAUNCH
OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED ON WOMEN'S EQUALITY DAY AUGUST 26th, 2019, NEW YORK CITY
Up until recently, New York City had less than 3% of their public statues depicting females. This statistic is seen all across the world with Sydney and London following suit with 4% and 3% respectively. In fact, there are more statues called John in the UK than there are of historical women!
Statues For Equality is on a mission to even out these statistics, starting with 10 larger than life statues of inspirational women.
The launch was met with overwhelming support and applause. Globally covered by the press it had over 250 million unique visits in August alone! Presidents and governments across the globe applauded the mission as well as members of the public, thrilled to finally be able to see inspiring female faces in the art of the city.
Statues For Equality proves how immediate change for gender equality can happen. With the addition of the 10 statues in NYC, the number of female statues of women went from 3% to 10% overnight!
The New York project is just the start of Statues For Equality and the initiative is now worldwide, with projects starting in many different countries, including Australia, the UK, and the US. As the project expands, it will include a broader diversity of race, class, ability, sexual orientation, and gender expression, celebrating all the differences found in women-kind.
Gillie and Marc are the founders of this project but it is not theirs to own. Statues For Equality involves the entire world so it belongs to everyone. Gillie and Marc cannot do this alone, they need your help!
The public are the best people to decide who should be honored with a statue. With already over 1 million nominations, the public are once again asked to again nominate the next women that they think deserve the recognition of being immortalized in bronze!
There is also a call for corporations, cities, towns and anyone else who has a public place to become a part of history and host the next Statues For Equality.
Finally, the call has also gone out to all artists, sculptors, and creators to get involved and help them to create the hundreds of statues still to come. Gillie and Marc desperately need the talent of the artistic community to jump on board if they are to reach gender equality in public art.
Sculptures inspire. They illustrate history, and they express stories of achievement that motivate generations.
Everybody can be a part of this global movement. Help Gillie and Marc continue their mission to balance gender representation in public art by hash-tagging #StatuesforEquality and nominating the next woman you’d like to see immortalized in bronze!
