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Monuments: Commemoration and Controversy, organized by The New York Historical and curated by Wendy Nālani E. Ikemoto, explores monuments and their representations in public spaces as flashpoints of fierce debate over national identity, politics, and race that have raged for centuries. Offering a historical foundation for understanding today’s controversies, the exhibition features fragments of a statue of King George III torn down by American Revolutionaries, a souvenir replica of a bulldozed monument by Harlem Renaissance sculptor Augusta Savage, and a maquette of New York City’s first public monument to a Black woman, Harriet Tubman, among other objects from The New York Historical’s collection. The exhibition reveals how monument-making and monument-breaking have long shaped American life as public statues have been celebrated, attacked, protested, altered, and removed.
Image: Johannes Adam Simon Oertel, Pulling Down the Statue of King George III, New York City, ca. 1852–1853, oil on canvas. The New York Historical, Gift of Samuel Verplanck Hoffman, 1925.6. Courtesy of The New York Historical
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Events listed below with a location are live, in-person programs. When possible, those events will also be streamed and the recordings posted to our YouTube channel.
Opening Night Lecture: Monuments: Commemoration and Controversy
Thursday, September 18, 5:30 p.m.
Wendy Nālani E. Ikemoto, Vice President and Chief Curator, The New York Historical
Part of the Edwin L. Weisl, Jr. Lectureships in Art History, funded by the Robert Lehman Foundation
Wendy Nālani E. Ikemoto will speak about the exhibition Monuments: Commemoration and Controversy, which she curated at The New York Historical and which will be on view at FUAM September 19-December 20, 2025.
Reception: Monuments: Commemoration and Controversy
Thursday, September 18, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Bellarmine Hall, Great Hall and Bellarmine Hall Galleries
Lecture: Latinx Monuments in the United States
Monday October 6, 2025, 5 p.m.
Marisa Lerer, PhD, Director of Education, Creative Capital
Bellarmine Hall, Diffley Board Room and streaming
Part of the Edwin L. Weisl, Jr. Lectureships in Art History, funded by the Robert Lehman Foundation
Art historian Marisa Lerer works on modern and contemporary art in Latin America and Latinx art, with a specific focus on monuments as sites of public memory. Her talk will draw upon the themes introduced by the exhibition Monuments: Commemoration and Controversy and expand outward to consider the history of monuments dedicated to Latinx and Latin American figures in the United States and beyond.
Art in Focus: Johannes Adam Simon Oertel, Pulling Down the Statue of King George III, New York City, 1852-1853, oil on canvas
Thursday, October 9 12 noon in-person, 1 p.m. streaming
Bellarmine Hall Galleries
Art in Focus: Stafford Mantle Northcote, Tong Yin Yee Shung Gun, Chinese Laundry, 1899, oil on canvas
Thursday, November 6, 12 noon in-person, 1 p.m. streaming
Bellarmine Hall Galleries
Lecture: Sculpting the Past: Art, Identity, and Commemoration in Public Space
Thursday, November 6, 5 p.m.
Kelley H. Di Dio, PhD, Rush C. Hawkins Professor of Art History, University of Vermont
Part of the Edwin L. Weisl, Jr. Lectureships in Art History, funded by the Robert Lehman Foundation
Barone Campus Center, Dogwood Room and streaming
Family Day: Make Your Monument!
Saturday, September 20, 12:30-2 p.m. and 2:30-4 p.m.
Bellarmine Hall Galleries and Museum Classroom
(Space limited; registration required. Suitable for ages 4-10)
Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. (Thursday until 8 p.m.) - We are closed for national and university holidays and during inclement weather.
Location:
The FUAM's main galleries are located on the lower level of Bellarmine Hall. For GPS please use the following address: 200 Barlow Road, Fairfield, CT 06824 (or click the map at right for directions).
Parking:
Free parking is available in front of Bellarmine Hall. Handicap parking is available next to the museum’s service and classroom entrance on the lower level of Bellarmine Hall.
Admission:
The museum is open to the public and admission is free.
Tours:
Private tours with a curator are available for a fee; please contact museum@fairfield.edu or 203-254-4046.
Reach Us By train:
Take Metro-North, New Haven Line, to Fairfield Station (approximately 70 minutes from Grand Central Station).
www.mta.info/mnr
800-638-7646
For further information or to schedule a visit or tour, please contact
Fairfield University Art Museum
1073 North Benson Road
Fairfield, CT 06824
(203) 254-4046
museum@fairfield.edu
