Art teacher designs sculpture for Mead memorial in New York

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Art teacher Marianne Hall was chosen to design the sculpture for the Margaret Mead Memorial which will be placed in the park around the Museum of Natural History in New York.

Mead was one of the first women anthropologists and was also a writer, speaker and teacher.

She taught at Columbia University where Hall took her class about using new media in anthropology.

“She was a big, big inspiration to me so I am honored to be able to do this,” Hall said.

Mead died in 1978 and to commemorate her, a committee asked Hall to sketch out the bronze sculpture which will include a life size figure of her, and a bench so that children and parents can sit around it. It will also feature sculptures of her good friend and her little grandson.

As of now, the committee has agreed to all of Hall’s designs except how old they want Mead to appear. Hall has sketched many faces of Mead at different ages for consideration. Pointing to one of the many, Hall said “I like this one because this is what she looked like when she was my teacher in her late 60s.”

When it is finished, funding will be needed to hire a sculptor to bring Hall’s sketch to life.

“After I am done, the second step is to have everything printed up on a brochure that they are going to send around to people who fund memorials in New York,” said Hall.

March is Women’s History Month, and Mead will be remembered in another way, as she is featured in the short film “One Fine Day” created by English Teacher Martha Wheelock. The film is played at the end of the Women’s History assembly every year, and Hall agrees that Mead deserves that tribute.

“She was so brilliant, and she just engaged everyone. She was an amazing woman, an amazing anthropologist and an amazing teacher,” Hall said.

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