DATE POSTED: AUGUST 2023
By Martha Greenwald
Logistics
On May 24, 2023, I attended the Dedication Ceremony of the Kentucky Covid Memorial at the Kentucky State Capitol Memorial Garden in Frankfort. It was a warm, sunny, late spring afternoon and the 2 p.m. event was held on a blocked-off roadway adjacent to the newly constructed Memorial. About two hundred people were present (including the press) and we sat in white folding chairs that had been arranged into several long rows facing the podium, with the new memorial slightly behind and in full view.
I was invited to attend this ceremony because I was a member of the “Team Kentucky Covid-`19 Memorial Community Advisory Panel,” a group of about 20 people who were asked to provide input regarding which artist’s proposal should be commissioned. The panel included Covid-bereaved individuals, healthcare workers, Covid survivors, and a few people like me whose work centered on pandemic loss. Being chosen to serve on the panel involved an application process of answering questions in written form.
History of the Memorial
The original announcement about the memorial occurred during a 5 p.m. press conference in late March 2021 and was accompanied by a formal call for artist submissions. The artist selection process was two-phased. First, there was a Request for Qualifications and from that evaluation a pool of artists was invited to submit specific proposals. Phase 2 (design, preparation, and submission) included an honorarium. There was a highly unrealistic Project Timeline included in the original call for submissions so most of the original deadlines and goals were not met. The announcement made it clear that the funds for the memorial would come solely through donations and that no taxpayer funds would be spent.
All the advisory panel members received four proposals to review in October 2021. We were asked to sign NDA’s so I cannot describe the three proposals that weren’t chosen. We wrote detailed analyses of the proposals based on four questions which asked if the art expressed the “history and continued trauma of the pandemic,” articulated “themes of grief, resilience, unity and hope,” provided “opportunities for reflection and remembrance,” and presented a design “accessible to people with diverse abilities.”
On November 9th 2021, the panel was invited to attend an event at the Kentucky Capitol at 1 p.m. on November 14th.
At the ceremony, we heard several guest speakers including Jacqueline Woodward, who had lost her husband to Covid, and Jamar Wattley, an ICU nurse who cared for many Covid patients. Toward the end of the ceremony, after Governor Beshear’s remarks, there was a formal showing (complete with the dramatic removal of a fabric cover from an easel) of the chosen artist’s rendering. Amanda Matthews, an accomplished sculptor with many prior commissions, was asked to speak. She made it clear that she’d had little prior notice about being chosen and so there was an element of surprise surrounding the moment for the audience.
After the November 2021 announcement, the panel received no updates about the Memorial. Because of my own work, I did correspond with a few people in several government offices and occasionally I inquired about the progress. No one responded with any pertinent information. In mid-May 2023 I received an email with an invitation to the dedication ceremony. The public press release about the ceremony was sent out on May 23rd. I assume the short notice was partly to head off potential problems from protesters or others hoping to cause trouble. Governor Beshear’s pandemic responses were challenged and widely mocked by right-wing politicians and groups who disagreed with his decisions. A crude Halloween-esque figure meant to signify Beshear was hung in effigy near the Governor’s mansion in 2020; there had been loud riots outside the Capitol and a few publicized drive-by rallies protesting Covid rules and closures. The press release for this event specified that it “was open to media.”
The Ceremony, May 24, 2023
The dedication ceremony began with a recreation of a specifically Kentucky pandemic ritual— Kandie Adkinson, from the Office of the Secretary of State, rang a bell. She had done this beginning in 2020, every day at 10 a.m. in the Capitol Rotunda, to honor all those we had lost and also those working on the front lines.
Adkinson wore a bright green blazer to signify another ritual—the green lights that Governor Beshear had encouraged Kentuckians to put on porches and in windows as symbols of remembrance and hope throughout the darkest months of the pandemic. Depending upon the political proclivities of a neighborhood, it was not uncommon in 2020/2021 to see an entire Louisville street lit up green at nightfall.
After the bells, Lieutenant Governor Jacqueline Coleman spoke and noted that she had been pregnant during the first months of the pandemic and that the phases of her child’s development became a way for her to mark time privately. Her story was touching as it reflected upon the isolation and confusion that everyone else had also faced.
Following a prayer by Bishop Kevin McCraney of Louisville, the New Covenant Gospel Choir, led by Elder Mario Webb sang “Precious Lord.” The choir wore various crisp white tops and shirts and their spirited rendition of the song lent an energetic but reverent tone to the event.
Jacqueline Woodward (making a reappearance) spoke next, representing the Advisory Panel, and then was followed by Dr. Jason Smith, the Chief Medical Officer for University of Louisville Health. Dr. Smith had been visible in the national news cycle in April due to the mass shooting at Old National Bank in Louisville. His comments about gun violence were widely quoted on CNN and elsewhere and he discussed the surreal nature of his short-lived fame when we chatted after the ceremony.
Governor Beshear spoke next. It’s vital to note that he is a deacon in his church, a deeply religious man who speaks often about the importance of his faith—pertinent in this context because there is a genuine gravitas to his speech when he describes the lives lost during the pandemic. Nothing that he says sounds flippant or insincere. He describes everyone as “children of God” and it’s easy to be caught up by his rhetoric.
His speech summarized the mood and tableau of pandemic Kentucky as much as it focused on remembrance of those who had passed away. He particularly emphasized the role of county health departments, police, EMT’s, frontline workers, and the “heroic actions of Kentuckians” across the state. He even managed to insert a comedic story about sitting on a loading dock with Dr. Steven Stack as they awaited the first UPS trucks carrying Covid vaccine shipments.
Finally, he noted that he would not “bow to politics” as it relates to the pandemic and his administration’s response. “We will recognize the loss that we have been through,” he said. Since Beshear is now in the midst of a divisive reelection campaign, this statement has many obvious implications. By late May, there had already been ads by Republican primary candidates attacking the state’s initial Covid shutdowns and school and church closures.
Each figure has a noticeable hole at the base of the neck that contains a bell, audible when the wind blows. They have a dreamlike and somewhat ethereal dynamism that alludes to Degas ballerinas.
Artist Amanda Matthews was introduced. She explained the symbolism of the monument she created. (There is an audio embedded in the official memorial website that features Matthews describing her creation.) Titled “United We Stand, Divided We Fall” (the Kentucky state motto), the piece is large, elegant, and participatory. It features several figures around a central mast that supports a giant reflecting sphere upon which the state motto and seal are emblazoned. I find the sphere to be evocative of World’s Fair icons such as the perisphere of the 1939 World’s Fair and the Unisphere of the 1964 World’s Fair. The acutely mirrored surface of the Covid memorial sphere allows the viewer to see themselves as part of the physical monument, thus adding to its inherent symbolism of standing “united” — everyone who stands near the art becomes a part of it. The figures surrounding the sphere, representing doctors, scientists, teachers, first responders, leaders, and front-line workers, create a ”column of support.” Each figure has a noticeable hole at the base of the neck that contains a bell, audible when the wind blows. They have a dreamlike and somewhat ethereal dynamism that alludes to Degas ballerinas.
During Matthews’ speech, the sound system lost power. The staff was unable to fix it immediately, but Matthews chose to keep going and deliver the speech without a mic. A recorded version of her interpretation of the monument can be accessed at the monument through a QR code on a standing identifying panel.
After a concluding prayer from Rabbi David Wirtschafter of Lexington, and the gospel choir’s rendition of “Amazing Grace,” the ceremony concluded. The crowd mingled for quite a while and the Governor and Amanda Matthews spoke generously with many attendees.
I was one of the last people to depart and I did manage to talk to Governor Beshear. I told him about “Rituals in the Making” and he seemed genuinely surprised to learn that this memorial he had initiated is the first of its kind in the United States. He told me that he’d minored in Cultural Anthropology in college, which provides a lovely symmetry to this dispatch.
This Covid Memorial descends directly from the environment of compassion and memorialization that Governor Beshear created and curated.
Like everywhere else, Kentucky was besieged by pandemic politicization, though things were more nuanced due to the unique tone set by the Governor’s administration. This Covid Memorial descends directly from the environment of compassion and memorialization that Governor Beshear created and curated. The Governor’s 5 p.m. press conferences were a fixture on statewide TV in 2020 and 2021 and many Kentuckians relied upon the hour to learn more about the virus, but also to experience virtual community and hope. At the end of each presser, the Governor memorialized citizens who had died by reading their age, gender, and home county. Often he also highlighted one deceased citizen in detail, offering a micro-remembrance that implored everyone to see the individual soul “behind the statistics.” The pressers brought comfort and stability as the Governor’s presence became an embodiment of ritual.
And so, this May 24th dedication ceremony represented an evolution of those daily press conferences, normalizing public mourning rituals while at the same time expressing nostalgia for the novel rituals the pandemic necessitated. In a way, one could say that the Kentucky Covid Memorial is indeed a “ritual still in the making.”
Rituals in the Making 