Client: Bon Secours and Thalhimer Realty Partners

Overview

Strides was commissioned by Bon Secours Health System to recognize Westhampton School’s place in the story of racial integration. In 1961, 12-year-old Daisy Jane Cooper became the first African American student at Westhampton Junior High School, following a three-year legal case and a U.S. District Court order to desegregate. Strides consists of two 12-foot by 6-foot Weathering Steel forms. Viewers walk across cutout stainless steel ‘steps’, evoking Mrs. Cooper’s first steps up into the school. Further traversing the uncomfortable space between the two large forms, viewers read text describing the event, in the form of lasercut lettering inscribed into the sculpture and backed with mirror-finished stainless steel.

Goals

The goal of artists Matt Lively and Tim Harper was to evoke “experienced feelings surrounding the history that allow for conversations and understanding” regarding the events that occurred here. Standing four feet apart, the two mirrored forms create negative space between them in the shape of a plus sign, which serves as a visual symbol of integration. By entering and moving through this negative space, one can sense tension from the close proximity of surrounding forces. This exercise is meant to inspire viewers to consider what Daisy Jane Cooper must have felt that first day of school, with the weight of mounting pressures all around her.

Emerge from the interior and walk around the sculpture to either end, and one can see that Strides is, in essence, two plus signs consolidated into one experience. This is the story of integration: the joining of many, for the strength of all.

Process

Strides was created with input from Bon Secours Health System, Thalhimer Realty Partners, a committee of former teachers and students of the Westhampton School, citizens of the Westwood and Westhampton Communities, historians and designers, as well as Jane Cooper Johnson (formerly Daisy Jane Cooper) and her family.

Additional Information

Commissioned by Bon Secours and Thalhimer Realty Partners.