Monuments are structures which are built in order to commemorate a famous person or event. The Statue of Liberty, a gift of friendship from France to the United States, is visited by approximately four million people a year and is seen as a symbol of freedom and democracy to many. Although the Statue of Liberty is a good example of a successful monument, not all monuments meet such qualifications. When creating a monument, agencies should factor in what it will memorialize, its location, and its quality.
To begin with, when at a monument, many people tend to overlook what, or who, the monument commemorates due to the feelings it evokes. In his article, Lawrence Downes agrees with this, stating, “Looking up at the mountain in the golden light of late afternoon, it was hard not to be impressed, even moved, by this effort to honor the memory of a people this country once tried mightily to erase.” (Source C). However, what about before the construction of a monument? How will agencies gain approval from the public when a monument is memorializing something even slightly unacceptable? Christine Musser’s article discusses the controversy of a Holocaust museum, “The controversy grew from Jewish and non-Jewish communities, primarily due to the fact that a museum dedicated to the memory of the Holocaust would be built in the United States, who did little …show more content…
An entry in an online guide to offbeat tourist attractions confirms this, “The sculpture was supposed to be cast in bronze… But Maine ran out of money, so the artist just slapped a coat of bronze paint over the plaster model and shipped it to New York.” (Source F). The entry goes on, stating that the low-quality sculpture was vandalized, repaired, and even eaten by rats at a warehouse. Eventually, the sculpture received its bronze cast and is now worth $30,000. This goes to show that agencies should carefully consider the quality of a monument if they want it to
To begin with, when at a monument, many people tend to overlook what, or who, the monument commemorates due to the feelings it evokes. In his article, Lawrence Downes agrees with this, stating, “Looking up at the mountain in the golden light of late afternoon, it was hard not to be impressed, even moved, by this effort to honor the memory of a people this country once tried mightily to erase.” (Source C). However, what about before the construction of a monument? How will agencies gain approval from the public when a monument is memorializing something even slightly unacceptable? Christine Musser’s article discusses the controversy of a Holocaust museum, “The controversy grew from Jewish and non-Jewish communities, primarily due to the fact that a museum dedicated to the memory of the Holocaust would be built in the United States, who did little …show more content…
An entry in an online guide to offbeat tourist attractions confirms this, “The sculpture was supposed to be cast in bronze… But Maine ran out of money, so the artist just slapped a coat of bronze paint over the plaster model and shipped it to New York.” (Source F). The entry goes on, stating that the low-quality sculpture was vandalized, repaired, and even eaten by rats at a warehouse. Eventually, the sculpture received its bronze cast and is now worth $30,000. This goes to show that agencies should carefully consider the quality of a monument if they want it to