The “Chimes Project,” a major interactive and multi-media art initiative located in Freedom Park, was undertaken by Compassionate St. Augustine, the grassroots organization Keep Riberia Pointe Green, and the City of St. Augustine. As the Ancient City’s officially approved permanent public art installation, it interpretively pays tribute to our city’s African–American & Civil Rights storylines as well as the roles freedom, human rights, democracy, tolerance, civility, and compassion have played and continue to play in creating the narrative.
Artist Richard Cooke was commissioned to create the chimes, which are 14 aluminum cylinders graduated in height to form an upward arc. When individually struck, each of the pentatonic chimes sounds a different tone but produces a harmonious effect overall.
Within our country, there is a great desire to bring individuals and entire communities together to heal old wounds and make firm commitments to cooperatively and collaboratively building a better future. The “Let Freedom Ring Chime Project” initiative aims to invite all to ponder the possibilities and wander with wonder on the unique peninsula at the confluence of the San Sebastian and Matanzas Rivers.
Dr. Robert B. Hayling Freedom Park, a vast 10+ acre natural green space, honors St. Augustine’s nationally acclaimed Civil Rights Movement hero and offers extraordinary opportunities to reflectively and experientially discover new ways to engage with one’s self, others,
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The “Chimes Project,” a major interactive and multi-media art initiative located in Freedom Park, was undertaken by Compassionate St. Augustine, the grassroots organization Keep Riberia Pointe Green, and the City of St. Augustine. As the Ancient City’s officially approved permanent public art installation, it interpretively pays tribute to our city’s African–American & Civil Rights storylines as well as the roles freedom, human rights, democracy, tolerance, civility, and compassion have played and continue to play in creating the narrative.
Artist Richard Cooke was commissioned to create the chimes, which are 14 aluminum cylinders graduated in height to form an upward arc. When individually struck, each of the pentatonic chimes sounds a different tone but produces a harmonious effect overall.
Within our country, there is a great desire to bring individuals and entire communities together to heal old wounds and make firm commitments to cooperatively and collaboratively building a better future. The “Let Freedom Ring Chime Project” initiative aims to invite all to ponder the possibilities and wander with wonder on the unique peninsula at the confluence of the San Sebastian and Matanzas Rivers.
Dr. Robert B. Hayling Freedom Park, a vast 10+ acre natural green space, honors St. Augustine’s nationally acclaimed Civil Rights Movement hero and offers extraordinary opportunities to reflectively and experientially discover new ways to engage with one’s self, others, and more than 450 years of African-American history in our nation’s oldest continuously occupied European city.
The first phase of the Chimes Project was officially dedicated by the City of St. Augustine on April 4, 2018 – the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The core values of the Chimes Project are grounded in Dr. King’s quote:
“…the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
The Chime Project’s artistic expression of Dr. King’s compelling statement and universal yearning is threefold:
* A semi-circle of 14 graduated contrabass pentatonic aluminum chimes.
* “Toward” –– a white marble semi-circular reflection bench, created by artist Joe Segal, that is topped with granite tiles designed by local children from the Boys & Girls Club, The Webster School, and St. Johns Youth Academy.
* Compassionate St. Augustine’s Obelisk Art 450 commemoration of the Emancipation Proclamation.
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