Marc Massaro design
Columbus statue replacement, now before the Board of Alders.
A new sculpture honoring New Haven’s Italian American community is one step closer to coming to Wooster Square now that the Elicker Administration has formally submitted plans to the Board of Alders for a public artwork to replace the long-gone Christopher Columbus statue.
That Wooster Square sculpture proposal was listed as a so-called “communication” on the agenda for Monday night’s full Board of Alders meeting.
That means that the legislative item will next head to an aldermanic committee for a public hearing and review before returning to the full Board of Alders for further discussion and a potential final vote.
The proposed order calls on the Board of Alders to “accept” a new Wooster Square monument entitled “Indicando la via al futuro,” or “Pointing the way to the future.”
The sculpture design — of an Italian mother and father with their son, pointing upwards, and daughter, carrying a book and wearing a cross — was created by Branford-based artist Marc Massaro. It’s already won the approvals of the city’s Historic District Commission (on July 13) and the city’s Cultural Affairs Commission (on Sept. 6), and is slated to receive a vote by the city’s Park Commission at that board’s next monthly meeting on Wednesday.
Thomas Breen photos
The statue-less former Columbus pedestal viewed from Chapel St. to the south ...
... and from the park to the north. The new sculpture will be placed a few feet to the north of the current pedestral.
The aldermanic submission comes more than two years after the city removed the original Christopher Columbus statue from Wooster Square Park on June 24, 2020 amidst that summer’s Black Lives Matter protests. Thanks to the Historic District Commission’s vote of support in July, the new monument will stand three feet in front of the statue-less stone pedestal that once held the Columbus statute, and that will remain in place as part of this project.
Brian Slattery file photo
City arts director Jefferson: New monument design "exudes the diversity of our community in a spirit of inclusion."
In an Oct. 8 letter to the Board of Alders in support of the sculpture-acceptance proposal, city Arts Culture & Tourism Director Adriane Jefferson described the new monument as “a depiction of the immigrant experience in New Haven and exudes the diversity of our community in a spirit of inclusion.”
“The design review process was led by Bill Iovanne and the late Laura Luzzi, who served as co-chairs of the Wooster Square Monument Committee (‘WSMC’) along with a diverse committee of Wooster Square residents, business owners, society members and public officials,” Jefferson continued. “By way of background, the WSMC was formed by Mayor Justin Elicker on June 29, 2020 to formally decide how to appropriately honor the contributions to Italian-Americans in New Haven. The WSMC carried out its work through a collaborative process, convening numerous public meetings with broad representation from residents in the area and the general public and the outcome is excellent.”
A “fiscal impact statement” submitted by Jefferson as part of the proposed aldermanic order states that care and maintenance of the new monument “is anticipated to be in keeping with works of art citywide. The Wooster Square Monument Committee worked closely with City staff to review material selections and design approach in part to preserve the structural integrity of the existing pedestal.”
Still another attachment to the aldermanic submission, called “supporting documentation,” goes into further detail on the design and installation plan for the new sculpture. Those details come thanks to a write up by Wooster Square Monument Committee Chair Bill Iovanne.
According to that two-page writeup:
• The wrought iron fence that currently surrounds the stone foundation that used to hold the Columbus statue will be removed.
• The stone foundation itself will remain, while the new sculpture placed atop a new adjacent piece of granite. Here’s how Iovanne described that decision: “After much discussion, the committee feels it is in the best interest of the project to preserve the integrity of the foundation while at the same time honoring our ancestors who raised the funds and provided the labor to build it. With this in mind, we are proposing to leave the foundation intact, repair the mortar, and use the foundation as a backdrop for the placement of the new sculpture which will be set on the northern side facing into the park. The sculpture will be set on a single piece of granite, measuring 5’x7’x 2’ thick, set on a crushed stone foundation below ground level.”
• An evergreen shrub called Ilex Glabra will be planted on east, west and south sides of the statue-less foundation. “The committee proposes the installation of quarried brownstone to be installed between the base of the sculpture and the foundation for maintenance reasons. It will prevent mowers from damaging the foundation and the sculpture. The brownstone will cover 21 square feet of space between the sculpture and the foundation.”
• The sculpture will be lit by two WAC 3″ LED ground-level lights. An additional four LED lights will light the existing foundation.
• There will be two plaques on the Chapel Street side — “one to cover the space where the former plaque hung to acknowledge the artist, city officials, the committee members and major donors to the project”; the other “will be made of cast bronze and have a brief narrative about the history of the foundation. Each plaque will be made of cast bronze, attached by four bolts anchored into the existing foundation much in the same way the original plaque was affixed. The plaque made to cover the Columbus inscription, when attached to the foundation, will not disturb any part of the engraving.”
Wooster Square Park.
Only in New Haven can an expenditure and planned artwork like this have a "fiscal impact statement" without any costs.
It's great to maintain the old foundation of the Columbus statue - it can forever be a reminder of the political pandering around this monument(s).