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Tillie K. Fowler Memorial to be Installed March 30 – April 2
Jacksonville’s Art in Public Places Program, administered by the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville, announced that the Tillie K. Fowler Memorial will be installed on the Northbank Riverwalk beginning March 30. Rhode Island-based sculptor Brower Hatcher estimates that the work will take five days to install at its site behind the Yates Family YMCA, 221 Riverside Avenue. While in Jacksonville, Hatcher will present a lecture for the public on April 1at 7:00 p.m. at MOCA Jacksonville, 333 North Laura Street.
The memorial to Congresswoman Fowler is an 18.5-foot, fully illuminated abstracted oak tree of welded stainless steel shingles and stainless steel rods. “I have designed a work that embodies the strength, beauty and grace of Tillie Fowler,” said Hatcher, president and artistic director of Mid-Ocean Studio Inc. in Providence, RI. “Tillie’s spirit will be captured in the image of a magnificent oak tree – strong, protective of her community, concerned for all and always reaching out.”
The Fowler Memorial was funded by a public-private partnership consisting of the City of Jacksonville’s Art in Public Places Program, Holland & Knight LLP, and The Haskell Company. The project was initiated during the term of former City Council President Elaine Brown.
Tillie Fowler served as President of Jacksonville’s City Council from 1982-85. From 1992-2000, she served four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. Congresswoman Fowler became an integral part of the leadership in Washington – serving on several military committees. As Vice Chairman of the Republican Conference, Fowler was the highest-ranking woman in the U.S. Congress when she retired. Upon her departure from Congress, Fowler received the Navy’s Distinguished Public Service Award and the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service. These are the highest civilian awards given by the Navy and the Department of Defense.
Fowler joined the Washington, DC office of Holland & Knight as a Partner in 2001. She remained active in civic and volunteer organizations in North Florida until she her death in March 2005.
The inspiration for the oak tree image came from Rev. Barnum McCarty, rector emeritus of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, who at her funeral said, (excerpted), “The other day I drove up into the front yard of a dear friend of mine who was as close to Tillie as anyone. As I got out of the car and stood up straight to stretch my aging back, I looked up at and into the large and magnificent oak tree under which I was standing. I began studying it, how it’s strong and sturdy limbs gracefully bent and reached out in all directions to its environment, adding beauty and significance to its place on the earth. It allowed for light to come through its canopy, yet it also provided the comfort of shade. I said to myself that tree is Tillie. She may have been a Steel Magnolia, but to me she was a mighty oak. She remarkably reached out in all directions, gracing everything she touched. She always made a difference…”
Hatcher attended Vanderbilt University School of Engineering in Nashville, TN and received his degree in Industrial Design from Pratt Institute in New York. He studied sculpture at St. Martins School of Art in London, U.K. and served on the faculty at St. Martins and Bennington College. In his career as an artist, Hatcher has built over 40 public art projects throughout the U.S. He has received three National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, a Guggenheim Fellowship and an honorary Ph.D. from the State University of New York. The Art in Public Places Program is administered by the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville by ordinance, through which .75% of public construction and renovation projects is dedicated to the creation of public art. For more information, contact the Cultural Council at 904.358.3600.