We Shall Rise: Mother Jones Monument

The Chicago Departments of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) and Water Management (DWM) in partnership with the Mother Jones Heritage Project (MJHP) invite professional artists and artist teams with a demonstrated history of completing major permanent outdoor public art projects to submit their qualifications for a $250,000 commission remembering Mother Jones and her continuing legacy. The monument will be placed in Jane Byrne Park at the Historic Water Tower, 806 N. Michigan Avenue.

Mary Harris "Mother" Jones (1837-1930) was an Irish immigrant who became a pivotal Chicago-based labor organizer, advocating for global justice, rejecting racism against African-Americans, supporting the Mexican Revolution, organizing women as well as men, and working for improved living conditions for working families. Important goals of the project include fostering community-driven monument projects, increasing the number of monuments to historic women, and raising public awareness of Chicago's important labor history.

Successful proposals will approach the artwork's subject with a deep understanding of Mother Jones' personal story and her role in labor history, and will address the site with a bold and creative vision sensitive to the historic setting. Designs will be informed by a robust community engagement process and should include elements of appropriate size, scale, and orientation to engage viewing from multiple vantage points. The artwork must be engineered to withstand permanent outdoor installation in a dense urban setting and require minimal to no annual maintenance; only durable and resilient media will be considered. Work sample requirements: 6-10 images and 0-1 video (6-11 total samples). Finalists will be paid a $1,000 honorarium to develop proposals. The commission budget of $250,000 is inclusive of all costs for design, structural engineering, fabrication, site preparation, and installation. An artist information session will be held on February 1, 2023 at 6:00 PM CST via Zoom; email [email protected] for the link.