Last week, a controversial sculpture of the feminist author Mary Wollstonecraft was unveiled in Richmond, London. The fleshy, naked depiction of the mother of feminism polarized critics, many noting that its representation was insulting to Wollenstonecraft’s legacy.
In response, a campaign to fund a statue of Virginia Woolf, created by the sculptor Laury Dizengremel, has received an influx of donations. The nonprofit Aurora Metro Arts and Media has been saving for three years to commission the sculpture, which will be situated by the river in Richmond, where the author lived and worked for a decade. Almost $21,000 of the $66,000 target has been raised to fund the monument, a life-size bronze statue of Woolf sitting on a bench and looking toward the river, with just enough space for visitors to sit next to her.
