Alum Richard Hunt Creates Bronzeville Monument to Ida B. Wells
Sculptor, local Chicagoan, and alum Richard Hunt (BA 1957, HON 1979) created a monument to crusading journalist, activist, and researcher Ida B. Wells. The monument, entitled Light of Truth, represents Wells’s multifaceted work and legacy. “We made a decision before we even contacted Richard that we wanted to have something that would not be in her likeness,” shared Michelle Duster, a local author and Wells’s great-granddaughter. “We wanted it to be a monument versus a statue because Ida’s life and her work was so multi-dimensional, so multi-layered that we felt trying to capture one pose would not capture all of who she was.” Light of Truth is located in Bronzeville, on the land where the neighborhood’s Ida B. Wells homes once stood.
Alum Camille Billie (BFA 2022) and Professor Shaurya Kumar push for systemic changes to support diverse artists.
Camille “Katahtu’ntha” Billie, a Black Indigenous artist, is the current artist-in-residence at the Center for Native Futures, Oct. 11, 2024. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)
Camille “Katahtu’ntha” Billie, a Black Indigenous artist, is the current artist-in-residence at the Center for Native Futures