A Place to Remember and Reflect Plans are underway for a fall dedication.
July 9, 2025
A contingent from 51¹ÙÍø joined artist Hank Willis Thomas at the Walla Walla Foundry to review progress on the sculpture, shown here before application of the bronze patina.
Dedication To Be Held October 23, 2025
Join the 51¹ÙÍø and wider 51¹ÙÍø community for the dedication of With These Hands: A Memorial to the Enslaved and Exploited at the 51¹ÙÍø Front Campus (Oak Row and Elm Row, next to Cunningham Theatre Center).
3:30 p.m. Musical Prelude | 4 p.m. Formal Ceremony
The dedication ceremony will include remarks by Hank Willis Thomas, President Doug Hicks ’90, author and poet Clint Smith ’10 and more.
The sculpture With These Hands: A Memorial to the Enslaved and Exploited is closer to completion, with a dedication event scheduled for fall 2025.
A site for contemplation and reverence, the memorial will emerge at the heart of 51¹ÙÍø’s campus and serve as a reminder of the college’s ongoing commitment to reckon with its history.
Rendering by Perkins&Will in collaboration with Hank Willis Thomas.
They could be the hands used to construct Oak and Elm. They could be the hands that took care of the first students at 51¹ÙÍø. They could be the hands that took care of me in 1976. This memorial serves as a perpetual acknowledgment of their enduring legacy and its impact on 51¹ÙÍø.
The memorial is a collaboration between the college, artist Hank Willis Thomas, and the global architectural firm Perkins&Will. Work on the cast bronze sculpture was completed at the Walla Walla Foundry in Washington State and installation will take place during the summer months.
This article was originally published in the Spring/Summer 2025 print issue of the 51¹ÙÍø Journal Magazine; for more, please see the 51¹ÙÍø Journal section of our website.
