The Peoria Park District is commissioning Preston Jackson to create a new work for the spot where Christopher Columbus once stood in upper Bradley Park.
The bronze sculpture will pay tribute to the Native Americans who originally lived in this area of Central Illinois.
Joy Kessler, Jackson's assistant, told the park board in a memo the sculpture will feature relief images of Native American life, developed in conjunction with the local Native American community. A medicine wheel, benches, and signage will also be incorporated.
Trustee Steve Montez was the sole no vote. He balked about paying Jackson a chunk of his $100,000 fee up front without hearing more from the artist in person about the piece he wants to create.
"You've got to pay $25,000 before you drop out, if you don't like what's going on," he said.
But trustee Joyce Harant took a different view. She compared that to having an architect design a building before they get paid.
"It seems like we're asking someone to put in tremendous creative work, and so there has to be some give and take in that process," she said. "Especially trust, when you have a person, an artist of such stature."
Jackson's work has won international acclaim for works like Acts of Intolerance, which marks the 1908 race riots in Springfield; and the traveling Fresh from Julianne's Garden. Jackson maintains a studio at the Contemporary Art Center of Peoria.
The Columbus statue was removed in 2020 amid a wider backlash against the explorer's controversial legacy, and in particular, his treatment of Native people.
Neighborhood groups on the West Bluff lobbied the park district to replace the Columbus statue with a monument of the Greek goddess Hebe, but that idea was rejected.
The park board made an exception to its own statue policy to approve the project.
