KUAR | By Michael Hibblen
Key advances have been made to replace Arkansas’ two statues in the U.S. Capitol, though their unveilings won’t happen as soon as originally hoped.
The architect of the U.S. Capitol notified the state in a letter Tuesday that approval has been given for a full-size clay model of Little Rock civil rights activist Daisy Gatson Bates to be used to cast the bronze statue. Meanwhile, the sculptor creating a statue of music legend Johnny Cash says he has completed work on a clay model and is preparing to submit a packet of material about it for approval.
Each state has two statues on display, most in Statuary Hall, with the ones currently representing Arkansas, attorney Uriah Rose and former U.S. Sen. James P. Clarke, being more than a century old. In 2019, at the urging of Gov. Asa Hutchinson, the Arkansas Legislature approved replacing them with Bates and Cash.
Michael Hibblen/KUAR News
The face of Kevin Kresse's clay model for the Johnny Cash statue as it appeared on Oct. 20 at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's Windgate Center of Art and Design.