3101 13th Street, NW Photos by Michael Janis / WGS
From an email:
“Harriet Tubman Elementary School in Columbia Heights has reopened after its major modernization, and there is a striking new piece of public art at the front of the campus: an 11-foot Corten steel sculpture called Enduring Dreams of Home, designed by Washington Glass School artists Michael Janis, Erwin Timmers & Tim Tate.
The sculpture takes the form of fractured Washington rowhouses, with a stylized portrait of Harriet Tubman emerging from the center. The house is an important part of the story. For Tubman, home was something that had to be escaped, fought for, and ultimately made possible for others. Placing the sculpture at a school named for Tubman brings that history into the everyday lives of a new generation of Washington children.
The sculpture was designed by Janis and the Washington Glass Studio, with fabrication by Tim Scofield. The Corten steel will continue to weather and develop its distinctive patina over time, so the piece will literally change as the school and neighborhood around it evolve.
The installation itself was quite a job. The 11-foot steel sculpture had to be maneuvered through narrow, congested city streets before being carefully positioned on the school grounds, with rain arriving before the job was finished.
Enduring Dreams of Home is intended to be more than a portrait of Harriet Tubman. It is about freedom, displacement, the meaning of home, and the dreams we pass on to the next generation.”