public installation is looking to inspire Chicagoans to re.

Imagine who we choose to remember.

It's called other Washington's and it features artists, inventors and educators and other inspirational leaders all with the last name Washington.

The public artwork is located around the George Washington statue in Washington Park as part of the Chicago Monuments Project.

Joining us live from outside that installation is the artist who created Amanda Williams.

Also, we should mention former MacArthur fellow recipient, which makes you a genius.

Welcome back.

I'm thanks for joining us.

Hi.

Thank you so much for having me again.

So you unveiled the project just a few minutes ago.

Really?

What was the reaction from the folks in attendance?

>> We have an amazing turnout.

We had a cross section of actual honorees and participants as well as neighborhood community leaders and everyday Bronzeville, Washington Park citizen.

So is a really great.

First foray into what will be, I think, a really wonderful anchor for Washington Park.

>> So describe what we're seeing for us in the center.

We can see, of course, the statue of George Washington still there.

But without flag poles tell us what we're looking at least.

So we have nearly 40 flag poles that surround George.

>> Each one contains a flag and or a biography on a banner of what I've called other Washington.

So these are beloved historical figures like Booker T or George Washington Carver, but also everyday unsung heroes like Benjamin Washington, who is the band director at King High School will be coming down this very street on Saturday, the Bud Billiken parade.

So we really give a cross section of folks that make a huge impact in our collective memories.

But also in our present day.

>> Yeah, I see a couple of Washington names.

I think I recognize want to come back to that in just a bit.

But you've also described this exhibit as an intervention on the George Washington statue.

What do you mean by that?

An intervention?

So George Washington is one of those figures that everybody probably can describe as something they learned about in school, from elementary school kids to adults.

>> And we have a kind of static way that we understand him.

Usually not necessarily in a positive light or maybe finding him to be relevant in many instances.

Obviously, he's the first president of the United States, but also.

Renders a troubled history as a slave owner and other narratives that are minimize or overlooked.

And so this gives an opportunity to not just erase him or 2 either minimize or overemphasize those things, but also to just expand what it might mean to honor and exalt someone name Washington.

So you you included Chicagoans in the selection process.

How did that work?

>> So we about a year ago a banner around offense that was in closing the statue.

>> Since 2020 and just asked a simple question, who's your favorite Washington?

And I found that to be a way to really get people engage, whether you name Washington are not, you know, Washington in a Washington has played some role in your life from Harrell to Diana.

And then that really was a kind of informal crowdsourcing to get people to give information about these Washington's that they might think are important.

And then we held several workshops in the neighborhood with different groups that are stakeholders committed knitters at art in public life on 55th Street at the perfect tree on Presidents Day to really kind of pull out those stories of people that had deep impact and meaning for people.

And then we work to edit those in turn those into banners and biographies.

So really was something that everybody could feel they had ownership over one Washington who I think he's probably played an important role in your life and your work is.

>> George Washington Carver, of talk about, you know, his importance in history and I'm a little bit you know, how he influenced your work because you spent a lot of time researching his blue, the blue, the color blue that he patented.

Yeah.

So in addition to this project that's been about 2 years.

>> Thinking about about 2 the obscure Patton that George Washington Carver received in 1927.

So obviously he's the peanut gotten most of us.

But in reality at a kind of broad range of skills and expertise in kind of magic.

So one of those was this patent for this blue paint.

And I've made some paintings with those but also wanted to bring that into some of my public artwork.

And so the colors of the banners that you see behind us as well as the flags themselves.

Are this pressure blue and then the banners are a kind of expanded palette that he developed, where he encourage farmers in Alabama to paint the interiors of their homes with salmon walls and chocolate ran and cream ceiling.

So the cream and the chocolate and the salmon that you see on the banners are too what really is a beautiful color palette on under any circumstances.

But definitely in this public around.

Yeah, that was definitely be my next question because I know color plays a big role in your work it's we've seen that in some of your previous works.

>> So then the colors that you just named, are they on?

You know, did you group the Washington's into different colors for whatever reason like this group of people were scientist or politicians or >> how big it?

so no, we thought about that.

We as I trained as an architect, sir, my background in kind of understandings of space was a lot of time spent thinking about the car that's going to drive past on on King Drive and then the pedestrians that are going to walk on the on the frontage road that is just west of of the median where the statue sits.

It's a really just thinking a play on the collar and that way.

So they're not necessarily group that way.

But it does lend itself in future iterations of this project to think about it in that way.

We do keep families together.

There's several where there's a husband and wife or there are father, a son and a grandfather.

So you will see those kinds things together.

Amanda, you know, as the country celebrates its 250 of this year, you know, what do you want people to think about or consider about America as they see this exhibit?

>> America's in a difficult time.

But I think we all have a belief that we can live out what these ideals in these dreams, whether they were fictional or not, they're here and we're part of it.

And so I think in this moment where we see a lot of you're a share, a lot of conversation about fake news.

It's amazing that we live in a city where we can have support of artists in civic it works that really allow people to see everyday real people not a pretend thing.

You know, Jerome Washington exist.

Candace Washington exist.

They being honored in real time.

And so I think that the message for everybody is that you don't have to be a genius or have done something great.

Historically to be honored to to be seen as human.

And I think that that message is lost a little bit in the larger conversation about what it means to be American.

And so I think this is an expansion of plenty plenty of Washington's to appreciate.

It's a popular name.

So is Williams.

That is where we'll have to leave it with.

Amanda case makes so much for joining >> Thank you.

They having me again.

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