LAKEWOOD, Wash. — John Fleming has been putting up public art projects for the past 20 years.
So when the City of Lakewood put out a call for artists to submit ideas for an art piece to be installed in front of Colonial Plaza, he threw his hat in the ring.
“I proposed these two arcs as a gateway into Lakewood, and the selection committee reviewed and selected me as the finalist for the commission,” he said.
The art piece would include comments from 112 people gathered by the city about how much they enjoy living in Lakewood.
The art project was installed in front of the Plaza on Jan. 25, but Fleming spent Tuesday getting rid of three quotes on one-half of the art piece and another on the other half of the art piece across the street.
Lakewood’s communication manager, Brynn Grimley, said while most of the comments were positive, some residents had issues with a few of the messages.
“This week, it came to our attention via social media that one of those comments was not only representative of the theme but frankly our values here in Lakewood,” she said.
The comment attributed the actions of Nazi Germany to socialism, but that wasn’t the only one removed. Another comment denigrated communism, and there was a quote from Ulysses S. Grant regarding Indigenous Americans that was removed.
Grimley said because this was public art, there wasn’t an established process for the city to review every comment that was submitted before passing them on to Fleming. She also said some might have gone to Fleming directly before going through the city.
“I think in this instance, because this was related to public art, there was a little bit of hesitancy in that, people don’t want to be censoring people,” Grimley explained. “First Amendment free speech, we want to respect that. We want to respect what public art is meant to be, but as we’re seeing, this probably went a little farther than it needed to go.”
But Grimley also said the city has the final say in what goes on public art, and moving forward, a stronger review process will be enacted.
Meanwhile, Fleming said he enjoyed working with the city to put this project together, and he only meant to show what Lakewood residents think.
"It’s not my view by any means,” he said. “I don’t necessarily agree or disagree with that input. I didn’t want to be a filter for saying 'I like this more than that,' and in hindsight, I probably should’ve filtered it more than I did.”
There will be a ribbon-cutting ceremony this Saturday at 10 a.m. to officially debut the art installation to the public. It hasn’t been officially discussed what will take the place of the controversial messages.