Three finalists presented their sculpture prototypes at the Clinton Presidential Center on Friday to have the chance to permanently take the place of a sapling from Anne Frank's chestnut tree that was dedicated in her memory in 2015 at the center.
Because of Arkansas' climate, the tree did not survive.
The selected sculpture will be centered around five 10-foot-tall etched glass panels. One is dedicated to Frank, one contains excerpts from President Bill Clinton's second inaugural address and the rest convey messages from three other violent, discriminatory acts -- the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the Central High crisis and the internment of Japanese Americans in Arkansas during World War II.
The Sculpture at the River Market committee, the Clinton Foundation and the Sisterhood of the congregation of B'nai Israel will fund the artist's work and installation at an undecided location at the William J. Clinton Library and Museum.
Stephanie Streett, executive director for the foundation, said this gives them an opportunity to have something physical that folks can see.
"It also gives us a platform to bring in speakers to have dialogue, public conversations, student conversations; it's been really amazing and we've continued to do that even without the tree," she said.
Donors for previous sculpture installations through the Sculpture at the River Market committee and other Little Rock community members visited with the artists and voted on which sculpture they thought should be selected. The winner will be announced this morning.
Finalist Clay Enoch, a sculptor from Memphis, created a prototype titled "Indefatigable," which shows a couple bracing themselves for the impact of "catastrophic hatred and oppression."
He said the pose "just kept grabbing me, something about the interaction between the couple, the expression, the emotion that it captures."
"I hope it would bring someone in to think through some things but also if you're with someone, maybe it inspires a conversation," he added. "I think that's one of the things missing from our culture right now; there's not enough dialogue. Usually, we find out that we're more similar than different. If you really take the time to get to know someone and hear their story, instead of just kind of throwing bombs from social media, from behind a screen."
Finalist Tim Smith, an artist from Kentucky, said he was inspired by his daughter's handwriting practice for his sculpture submission.
"My daughter used to write cursive, to pretend, because she wasn't old enough yet. She was like 5 years old, but she was competing with her older brother, and she would tell herself stories," he said. "I was always intrigued, so I did a Sarah series that deals with this sort of gestural mark, and that's what I wanted to capture here. It's like you're sketching a tree in two seconds."
Smith said his prototype sculpture represents seasonal changes, both outside and inside. The green twisting base of the sculpture winds through rectangular panels and is titled "A Space Within."
Smith said he had been asking around what people thought of his design and a few said it shows hope.
"I wanted that, but I hadn't expected them to say something like that," he added. "It is this idea of change and transform -- and part of me, what got me thinking about this is, I realized, I'm a classic white guy -- how can you compare with the legitimacy of their concerns?"
Smith said the tree itself has a symbolic association with Anne Frank, but where it started was rocks, "under a mountainside, the sedimentary layers."
"That shows the creation of the earth, those seeds of change, were fluid -- I've always been intrigued with this idea that what we think is permanent is really something in transition, and in the innocence of transformation to become -- it was so profound to those communities that were affected."
Smith said it's about an "internal and external struggle" and how we respond.
Finalist Joan Benefiel, a sculptor from Wichita, Kan., said this project is personal to her because her husband is Jewish.
Her unnamed piece centers a "violently broken off" chestnut tree branch inside the five panels to symbolize the Holocaust with the top stemming branches blooming in silver. The sculpture would tower over a circular bench that is broken off for an entrance and fits a symbolic Jewish star of David and an American star inside.
Benefiel said she wanted a way to incorporate the chestnut tree without it being a full tree because she thought it was important that the sculpture alludes to the fact that Little Rock received one of the 11 saplings from the original tree outside Frank's annex.
"It's not hopeless, it's not dead, so it's sort of this unlikely discovery that it's still blooming, it has new life coming from it," she added. "That's the thing that most people associate Anne Frank is, is the hope that she maintained through that most dire, horrifying, [experience] for two years."
Inscribed on the tree is a quote from Frank: "What is done cannot be undone, but one can prevent it from happening again."
"It was very clear to me in this call, that it was important to acknowledge what's happened, but not just be done with saying, 'Well, we can still hope it doesn't happen again.' That's not good enough," Benefiel said. "You want to be actively working on making sure it doesn't happen again."
Benefiel added that she wanted to create something that would be a learning tool and a place for people of all ages to discover something from.
"What I really hope, it's a welcoming place, number one, it draws people in, it's of a scale that I think works in this outside environment," Benefiel said. "But what I hope will happen is someone comes in to read the text on the arc there and while they're there, you're reading that text, you're touching it, you're interacting with it, and then you look up at this bright new silver part, thinking about what that means. And what you're doing in that moment is you're standing and doing exactly what Anne did in her attic through her window."
Benefiel believes this will spark empathy in visitors and allow them to talk about what that empathy means.