Stories
Of Thee, I Sing: The Power of Public Art in Clark County
Clark County Community Foundation, in partnership with the Greater Clark Foundation, provided funding for Of Thee, I Sing, a contemporary 21-piece public art display featuring Clark County residents. Artist Marjorie Guyon and photographer Patrick J. Mitchell created the pieces to portray the true story of Hannah and her son Daniel, two enslaved persons who lived in Clark County, as written about by Lyndon Comstock in his book Before Abolition: African-Americans in early Clark County, Kentucky.
The project soon grew into something much larger: a telling of the story of the American
South, with Clark County serving as one microcosm of rural pre-abolition America. The pieces feature Clark County residents of all ages, races and genders to instill empathy into the hearts of viewers. The artists’ statement further describes the project:
“In these portraits, whiteness, blackness, and color may appear in unusual ways and settle in new places. Patterns illuminate and disguise. A parent proudly protects or fades away, neither thing in the child’s control. How do we shift how we see ourselves in each other? How do we create a place we all can call home?”
Clark County Community Foundation, a geographic component fund of BGCF, and the Greater Clark Foundation held a public opening in October. More than 100 community members attended to view the pieces and listen to Clark County’s first interracial choir. The pieces will be transformed into window tapestries and displayed throughout Clark County in 2020.