From the Arkansas Advocate:
A Hot Springs Village artist proposed an altered version of her previous design for a “monument to the unborn” advocated by abortion opponents on Arkansas Capitol grounds, months after state officials expressed concern over the design’s cost and the artist’s attempt to copyright it.
Lakey Goff re-submitted her idea of a “living wall” of flora and fauna to commemorate abortion in Arkansas during the era of Roe v. Wade on Friday, one day before the submission deadline. Her proposal included a painting of her “prophetic vision” of the wall behind the Capitol, including images of Jesus and a dove, which are not expected to be part of the project.
Capitol Arts and Grounds Commission Chairman Stephen Bright said at last week’s meeting he expected several new proposals for the monument, but Goff’s submission was the only one.
The commission selected Goff’s original proposal from a pool of nine submissions in 2023, but the panel voted in January for Secretary of State Cole Jester’s office to accept new proposals. The call for submissions included a note that designs could not be copyrighted, Bright said March 10.
Copyrighting her design would have made it unchangeable, and Bright and other commissioners expressed concerns at previous meetings that it would need to be changed in order to be affordable. Jester in January said copyrighting the design also would have interfered with the state’s efforts to market the monument.
Goff’s revised submission includes a design similar to her original one, but the proposal includes a lower cost for construction and maintenance.
Act 310 of 2023 made Arkansas the first state to enact a law requiring a physical commemoration of the more than 236,000 abortions estimated to have occurred from 1973 to 2022. The law created a trust fund to collect private funds for the monument.
Fundraising has been slow since it began in May 2024, and Goff’s original design was estimated to cost more than $900,000. As of March 10, supporters have raised $28,790, nearly $1,000 more than in January, Bright said.
“I would think people would want to see what they’re going to be giving [to] before they donate any more money, so I would not be concerned that there were small donations this month,” he said at last week’s meeting.
Construction may not begin until 10% of the funds are raised, but the state has spent $11,514 on engineering and plan development, leaving $17,276 currently in the trust fund, said Samantha Boyd, a spokesperson for Jester’s office.
Little Rock contracting firm Nabholz is the monument’s project manager, and Goff said last year that the firm is not charging the state for its work because it is “a pro-life company.”
Landscape architects from Development Consultants Inc. started work on the project last year.
The new price tag
The two-sided living wall would be about 10 feet high, 33 feet long and about 660 square feet in total, according to the proposal. It would include automated irrigation to keep the plants alive and a sound system to project waterfall sounds.
Goff’s idea is inspired by a similar installation, licensed to the international company Sempergreen, in New York City near the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.
The anticipated cost of installing the living wall would be $345,700, according to the proposal prepared by Sempergreen, which builds and maintains plant-based outdoor walls, roofs and ground cover. Maintaining the project would cost $33,500 per year.
The Republican sponsors of Act 310, Sen. Kim Hammer of Benton and Rep. Mary Bentley of Perryville, sent Jester’s office identical letters of support for Goff’s design. The Advocate obtained the letters and the proposal via a public records request.
“The design creates a dignified and lasting tribute to unborn children,” both letters state. “It reflects our shared commitment to uphold and protect the sanctity of every innocent human life, regardless of age, circumstance, or vulnerability.”
Goff could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
The commission is expected to consider the proposal at its next meeting at 10 a.m. April 7.
In June 2024, the Arts and Grounds Commission accepted Goff’s suggestion to place her originally proposed idea in the grassy space behind the Capitol and to the north of the Arkansas Supreme Court building, near a set of picnic tables.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas has called the proposed monument “an offensive and inappropriate use of public space.” Act 310 passed the Legislature with bipartisan opposition, including from House Republicans who said they opposed abortion but believed a memorial monument was a poor use of time and energy.
Last year, the Texas Legislature passed its own law to install an abortion-related monument on Capitol grounds, also with private funds. The bronze sculpture would replicate the National Life Monument originally installed in Rome. A copy of the sculpture is on display in Washington, D.C.
Hammer also co-sponsored a 2015 law authorizing the construction of the Ten Commandments monument on Capitol grounds. The monument has been the subject of ongoing federal litigation. Several plaintiffs have claimed it violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which prohibits government entities from favoring an establishment of religion.
Bentley and Hammer were among the sponsors of a 2025 law mandating a display of the Ten Commandments in all public school classrooms. A federal judge permanently blocked the law Monday in six school districts in response to a lawsuit from multiple Arkansas families.
