Published May 6, 2025

Shirley Chisholm statue cast by MFA Alum Lichty

2016 Department of Art MFA Alumnus Gareth Lichty, has completed the bronze casting of a statue of Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman in Congress, who is laid to rest in Buffalo's Forest Lawn cemetery. The statue was designed by local artist Julia Bottoms.

Alt text provided upon request to art-info@buffalo.edu.

May 1, 2025 unveiling of the Shirley Chisholm statue at Forest Lawn Cemetery, with remarks from Senator Sean Ryan.

Related materials:

Gareth Lichty is currently an Instructional Support Associate in the Art & Design Department at SUNY Buffalo State University. 

  • Bio: Gareth Lichty (born London, Ontario, 1980) is a sculptor working with excessive amounts of handmade or manufactured units to create large-scale installations dealing with the internal and external architecture of space. He received his MFA from SUNY Buffalo (2016) and his Honors BFA at York University (2004) in Toronto and Sculpture at Leeds University (2002) in England. He has exhibited internationally with exhibitions in Europe, New Zealand, China, USA, and Canada. Lichty lives and works in Buffalo, New York.
  • Instagram @garethlichty
  • Project highlights:

April 25th Buffalo Rising article, "Official unveiling of the sculpture in honor of Shirley Chisholm", about this work here: https://www.buffalorising.com/2025/04/official-unveiling-of-the-sculpture-in-honor-of-shirley-chisholm/

Step Out Buffalo invitation to join Senator Sean Ryan for 5/1/25 the statue unveiling: https://stepoutbuffalo.com/event/shirley-chisholm-statue-unveiling/

  • Shirley Anita Chisholm was an American politician who, in 1968, became the first black woman to be elected to the United States Congress. Chisholm represented New York’s 12th congressional district, a district centered in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn for seven terms from 1969 to 1983.  In 1972, she became the first black candidate for a major-party nomination for President of the United States and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. Throughout her career, she was known for taking a stand against economic, social, and political injustices as well as being a strong supporter of black civil rights and women’s rights. Chisholm is interred in Forest Lawn’s Birchwood Mausoleum.

Julia Bottoms artist statement, on her website: https://www.juliabottoms.com/statement

  • "I am a woman, and I am a woman of color. Two factors which automatically create a series of intrinsic challenges in my moment in history. However I find myself in an interesting point in time; an era in which for all its challenges, my color and my gender is finally equipped with a voice, a vote, and a social climate in which change is possible. That power is expressed in numerous ways. Some people use the written word, while others utilize politics. My method of expression is the visual arts. The resulting emotional charge to my work is not necessarily a conscious effort, but rather a natural expression of the things I internalize on a day to day basis." ...