CONTACT: Mariesa Woodring, PR Specialist
6700 Azalea Garden Road
Norfolk, VA 23518-5337
(757) 441-5830, Ext. 346 Fax: (757) 853-8294
E-mail: mariesa.woodring@nbgs.org |
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Local artist and teacher Don Fortunato was selected to design and build a memorial to the original workers who built Norfolk Botanical Garden. The 8-foot bronze figure, depicting an African-American woman with a shovel, will be placed in the Garden’s historic acreage near Mirror Lake. Beginning in 1938, 200 African-American women and 20 men cleared dense vegetation and carried the equivalent of 150 truck loads of dirt by hand to build a levee for the surrounding lake. For a period of four years, the 220 original workers continued the back-breaking task of clearing trees, pulling roots, removing stumps and planting many different varieties of azaleas and other flowers. They worked in harsh conditions, long hours during all four seasons, regardless of heat, humidity, rain, snow or frigid temperatures. The last known surviving worker, Mrs. Edna Joyce, passed away in January. The 30-acre area is a Virginia Historic Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Mr. Fortunato attended Old Dominion University and The Peabody School of Art. He has taught sculpture, painting and illustration for various institutions, and is currently teaching at the Chrysler Museum of Norfolk and The Charles H. Taylor Center for the Arts in Hampton. He is a member of the International Society of Sculptors, and his one-man exhibition recently concluded in Virginia Beach. He was commissioned by the Chesapeake Bay Art Association as the Official Portrait Artist for the International Azalea Festival for eight consecutive years, and he has done portraits for Elizabeth Taylor, Carol Burnett, Beverly Sills, and Susan Ford (daughter of President Gerald Ford), among others. His larger-than-life works include the Risen Christ, the Black Madonna, Little Firefighter (Fireman’s Memorial) and the bust of Martin Luther King, Jr.
The jury was comprised of selected members of the Norfolk Botanical Garden’s Diversity & History, Fine Arts and Landscape Committees, along with local art experts, historians, educators and artists. In January a Request for Proposals was released, and concepts were submitted in March. The Garden is currently conducting a fund-raising effort campaign to build the memorial. Work on the monument itself is expected to begin this summer and will be dedicated on the Garden’s 70th anniversary in spring 2008.
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