Local authors are raising concerns following a pause on a large-scale city-funded art installation.
The public art installation, titled These Truths: Voices of Jacksonville, was planned for installation in front of the Duval County Courthouse.
This summer, the project was put on pause after being slated to be finished by the end of the year.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars in city funds have already been spent, and all there is to show is renderings of what would be.
The project was to be in collaboration with local authors and poets, as well as the “foundational text of our democracy”; however, it seems the local input was put on the back burner.
Now, local authors and writers are speaking out against different concerns they have with not just the project itself, but how the city treats local voices.
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One Jacksonville native, author and English professor Tim Gilmore, spoke with Action News Jax about his experience.
“I was kind of puzzled by the reaction of some of the public officials,” Gilmore said.
He also spoke about how this kind of treatment is not unique to their situation.
“Jacksonville has a history of driving its artists out of town, it’s done that for more than a century,” Gilmore later added, “I think any sophisticated and important city values the voices of its writers. It was very exciting to be part of a project where we were coming up with a way the voice of the city could speak back to the city.”
Gilmore is not the only author involved who felt the city was attempting to silence local voices. One contributor, Andres Rojas, expressed his experience while working on the project.
“The committee wanted to rewrite contracts to begin with, for us to give up our rights to the material, to have the right to edit, and eventually they just didn’t want any of our work,” Rojas said.
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These roadblocks slowed the project down and caused the text to change.
The most notable text change was when the artists’ selection panel approved replacing the word “equity” with “truth” in 2023. This came after they had previously rejected the artist’s, Cliff Gartens, previous two drafts of text.
Another issue raised by authors who worked on the project is the lack of communication, saying they had barely heard anything from the city over the five years since they all collaborated.
They also did not receive notification from the city that the project was shelved in the summer.
“It’s been five years since we’ve been told anything about what’s going on with this. I wish I knew what was going on with the project,” Gilmore said.
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At an August 14th finance committee budget meeting, Chief Judge Lance Day brought forward his specific concerns.
“Security, maintenance, practicality, and the cost. When I became chief judge, my focus was on the security of the building. It’s an item that should be paused, should be shelved, and re-studied,” Judge Day said.
Though he stressed he is not opposed to public art, he posed the question of whether the 6-figure project is a want or a need for the city right now.
The cultural council and city council both expressed hope that the project would move forward.
Councilman Ron Salem, who was a part of the meeting where Day expressed concern, seems hopeful the art will have a future.
“As we get back after the 1st of the year, I think we can begin to move forward,” Councilman Salem said.
For now, the future of what the 3-acre courthouse yard will look like remains up for discussion, as city and local voices seemingly differ.
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