From left: Artist Lakey Goff of Hot Springs Village, Capitol Arts and Grounds Commissioner Michael Harry and state Sen. Kim Hammer, R-Benton, discuss the upcoming “monument to the unborn” on Capitol grounds on Tuesday, June 11, 2024. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate)
The Arkansas Capitol Arts and Grounds Commission agreed Tuesday to recommend that the Secretary of State approve its proposed location for a “monument to the unborn” on the Capitol complex.
Act 310 of 2023 authorizes the Secretary of State to decide where to place “a suitable monument commemorating unborn children aborted during the era of Roe v. Wade.” The law states that Arkansans had at least 236,243 abortions while Roe v. Wade was in place from 1973 to 2022.
Lakey Goff, the artist behind the idea of a “living wall” of flora and fauna for the monument, proposed placing the monument in the grassy space behind the Capitol and to the north of the Supreme Court building, near a set of picnic tables. Goff and the commission spent last month’s meeting debating two other possible locations before deciding to compromise.
The monument is likely to occasionally draw crowds, such as the annual March for Life led by abortion opponents, so the monument should be placed in a highly accessible space, commissioner Michael Harry said.
“I think this new location can accommodate that, whereas the other two locations could not have,” Harry said. “It would have been a logistical nightmare.”
Several areas of the Capitol grounds are “no-monument zones,” but Goff said she ensured the space is legally available for a new monument before proposing it.
Commission recommends design for ‘monument to the unborn’ at Arkansas Capitol
Goff also said the land is important “spiritually” because it was once the site of a prison that housed both Union and Confederate soldiers during the Civil War.
“We are anointed to redeem this land by preaching the good news of Jesus, finding the broken part and setting the captives free,” Goff said. “…People will be set free from this living wall monument.”
Secretary of State John Thurston will have the final say on the monument’s location.
The commission chose Goff’s design in December from a pool of nine monument designs submitted for consideration. Goff said the idea was partially inspired by a similar installation at New York City’s Liberty Park, which overlooks the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.
The state will not use public money to construct the monument because Act 310 established a trust fund to raise money via gifts, grants and donations. Fundraising for the wall began last month, and Goff said she is aware of someone who has promised to be a monthly contributor.
Construction is not allowed to begin until 10% of the necessary funds have been donated, Harry said.
Goff told the commission she estimates construction will cost “very roughly” between $250,000 and $500,000.
Little Rock contracting firm Nabholz will be the project manager for the monument, and landscape architects from Development Consultants, Inc. of Little Rock will work on the project, Goff said.
Some commissioners expressed concern about whether the trust fund will accumulate enough money to complete the monument, which will include waterfall sounds from an underground sound system. Republican Sen. Kim Hammer of Benton, who co-sponsored Act 310 in the Legislature, said he would give the commission a “personal commitment” that construction would not begin until the trust fund has enough money for completion.
Bill to create anti-abortion monument at Arkansas Capitol heads to governor’s desk
Rep. Mary Bentley, R-Perryville, also sponsored Act 310 and was also present at Tuesday’s meeting.
In 2019, Bentley sponsored the state’s near-total abortion ban that went into effect upon the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022.
Hammer co-sponsored a 2015 law authorizing the construction of the Capitol’s Ten Commandments monument, which has been the subject of ongoing federal litigation. Several plaintiffs have claimed this monument violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which prohibits government entities from favoring an establishment of religion.
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