Wisconsin Workers Memorial

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Wisconsin Workers Memorial
Workers Memorial.jpg
Artist Terese Agnew and Mary Zebell
Year 1995 (1995)
Type Gazebo, plantings, chains and 21 plaques
Location E. Michigan St. between N. 3rd St. and N. 4th St., Milwaukee
Coordinates 43°2′13.38″N87°54′55.186″W / 43.0370500°N 87.91532944°W / 43.0370500; -87.91532944 Coordinates: 43°2′13.38″N87°54′55.186″W / 43.0370500°N 87.91532944°W / 43.0370500; -87.91532944

The Wisconsin Workers Memorial is a public artwork by American artists Terese Agnew and Mary Zebell located in Zeidler Park, which is in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. The artwork, created in 1995, takes the whole park as its theme, and includes a gazebo in the middle of the park with handles of tools and grills forming the ornamental grillwork. There are also decorative chains around the park spelling out popular labor slogans, as well as graphic panels explaining significant moments in Wisconsin's labor history. [1]

United States Federal republic in North America

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country comprising 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.

Milwaukee Largest city in Wisconsin

Milwaukee is the largest city in the state of Wisconsin and the fifth-largest city in the Midwestern United States. The seat of the eponymous county, it is on Lake Michigan's western shore. Ranked by its estimated 2014 population, Milwaukee was the 31st largest city in the United States. The city's estimated population in 2017 was 595,351. Milwaukee is the main cultural and economic center of the Milwaukee metropolitan area which had a population of 2,043,904 in the 2014 census estimate. It is the second-most densely populated metropolitan area in the Midwest, surpassed only by Chicago. Milwaukee is considered a Gamma global city as categorized by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network with a regional GDP of over $105 billion.

Wisconsin A north-central state of the United States of America

Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States, in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin is the 23rd largest state by total area and the 20th most populous. The state capital is Madison, and its largest city is Milwaukee, which is located on the western shore of Lake Michigan. The state is divided into 72 counties.

Contents

Description

Agnew and Zebells' Wisconsin Workers Memorial makes use of the entire Zeidler Park, integrating landscape and sculpture to create the final work. The designers kept in mind the park's character when creating the memorial. They believed that the park resembled a 19th-century village green, and thus created a gazebo that resembles a bandstand as the symbol of a democratic gathering place. The gazebo, situated in the middle of the park, is decorated with salvaged gears and tools of the modern workplace. There is a huge clock inside the edifice, referencing the time spent at work as well as the fight for the eight-hour workday. [2] The bandstand is accessible by wheelchair ramps, which serve as a useful reminder of workers injured on the job. Paths lined with ornamental chains and bollards lead from the sidewalk up to the structure. The chains display popular labor slogans and tell the story of Milwaukee's labor history from 1800 to the present through graphic panels stating important historical facts. The memorial is designed to commemorate the workers who have faced dangers and hazards on their job, as well as the struggles to overcome these hazards, thus the emphasis on Wisconsin labor history. "We want to find personal stories and worker experiences that illustrate milestones in the history of working men and women,,' said Zebell, a landscape architect, and Agnew, a public sculptor. 'Wisconsin is so important nationally for being a first in legislature such as Workers Compensation." [1]

Bandstand structure designed to accommodate bands during concerts

A bandstand is a circular or semicircular structure set in a park, garden, pier, or indoor space, designed to accommodate musical bands performing concerts. A simple construction, it both creates an ornamental focal point and also serves acoustic requirements while providing shelter for the changeable weather, if outdoors.

Bollard Vertical post used in mooring, traffic, etc.

A bollard is a sturdy, short, vertical post. The term originally referred to a post on a ship or quay used principally for mooring boats, but is now also used to refer to posts installed to control road traffic and posts designed to prevent ram raiding and car ramming attacks.

The Wisconsin Workers Memorial has been a collaboration between the Milwaukee Labor Council and the Wisconsin Labor History Society. Terese Agnew and Mary Zebell's design was chosen in a competition sponsored by the Milwaukee County Labor Council and the Milwaukee County Parks Design and Review Committee. [3]

Information

The gazebo/bandstand located in the middle of the park is the focal point of the memorial. It commemorates Wisconsin workers' tools, while emphasizing the struggles encountered by the laborers. The fabricating of all the ornamental grillwork, which is composed of salvaged gears, was done by skilled union members. A drive was held in order to raise funds to pay for the artwork.

The Wisconsin Workers Memorial was dedicated on April 28, 1995. The Wisconsin Labor Society was the original sponsor for the project, but it is currently managed by the Milwaukee County Labor Council. [4] Each year the site is used as a gathering point for Workers Memorial Day, which is held on April 28 to honor workers who have been killed or injured on the job. It is also the staging point for Milwaukee's annual Labor Parade on Labor Day.

Labor Day public holiday in the United States

Labor Day in the United States of America is a public holiday celebrated on the first Monday in September. It honors the American labor movement and the contributions that workers have made to the strength, prosperity, laws, and well-being of the country. It is the Monday of the long weekend known as Labor Day Weekend. It is recognized as a federal holiday.

Artist

Terese Agnew was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1959. Her parents encouraged her to pursue art, while her stepfather, who was a labor organizer, introduced her to the laborers' struggles worldwide. [5] This later became a central theme in Agnew's work. She attended the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee from 1981 to 1984 where she studied painting and sculpture. Agnew began her career as a public sculptor, creating works such as the Wisconsin Workers Memorial and her 35 concrete tree stumps at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts in Brookfield, Wisconsin. [2] She became notorious when in 1985 she wrapped a "huge fiberglass sculpture of a dragon around a Gothic Revival water tower on the east side of Milwaukee- an intervention that required months of legal wrangling but was only a five day installation." [6] The artist also started making quilts in 1990 centering, just as her sculpture, on themes of freedom, human dignity and man's role in nature. She is well known for engaging with public space and communities, as well as devoting as much time and effort as is necessary to achieve the desired aesthetic effect. Terese Agnew was a 2004 recipient of a Greater Milwaukee Foundation's Mary L. Nohl Fund Fellowship for Individual Artists in the established category. [7]

University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee

The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee is a public urban research university located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. It is the largest university in the Milwaukee metropolitan area and a member of the University of Wisconsin System. It is also one of the two doctoral degree-granting public universities and the second largest university in Wisconsin.

Brookfield, Wisconsin City in Waukesha

Brookfield is a city located in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States in the Milwaukee metropolitan area. It had a population of 37,920 in the 2010 census. Brookfield is the third largest city in Waukesha County.

Landscape architect Mary Zebell grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1980. Zebell then proceeded to obtain her Masters of Landscape Architecture from Cornell University. [8] She currently resides in Ithaca, New York where she works as an independent architecture and planning professional.

Cornell University Private Ivy League research university in Upstate New York

Cornell University is a private and statutory Ivy League research university in Ithaca, New York. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, the university was intended to teach and make contributions in all fields of knowledge—from the classics to the sciences, and from the theoretical to the applied. These ideals, unconventional for the time, are captured in Cornell's founding principle, a popular 1868 Ezra Cornell quotation: "I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study."

Ithaca, New York City in New York, United States

Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York. It is the seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca–Tompkins County metropolitan area. This area contains the municipalities of the Town of Ithaca, the village of Cayuga Heights, and other towns and villages in Tompkins County. The city of Ithaca is located on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, in Central New York, about 45 miles (72 km) south-west of Syracuse. It is named for the Greek island of Ithaca.

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 Wisconsin Labor Society Newsletter.(Winter 1995)Vol. 12 No. 3.
  2. 1 2 , Terese Agnew website.
  3. ↑ , You can help Milwaukee artist fight sweatshops.
  4. ↑ , Milwaukee Labor Council.
  5. ↑ , Museum of Art and Design.
  6. ↑ , Porcupine Literary Arts Magazine.
  7. ↑ The Greater Milwaukee Foundation's Mary L. Nohl Fund Fellowships for Individual Artists, 2004.
  8. ↑ , Zebell's LinkedIn.
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