Trump's national garden plan with 250 sculptures at risk, artists warn

Daily Mail​

3 days ago

President Donald Trump may face headaches as he tries to cobble together hundreds of statues before the 250th birthday of the U.S. Speaking in front of Mount Rushmore during his first term in 2020, Trump vowed that statues would soon be going up in America. Half a decade later Trump is working to make good on the promise he made before the stone faces of the most revered presidents.
But his plan to create a national sculpture garden, replete with the busts of at least 250 American heroes, all before July 2026, is already facing major hiccups. 'It seems completely unworkable,' Daniel Kunitz, editor of Sculpture magazine, recently said of the president's plan for the National Garden of American Heroes. The main issue, Kunitz told Politico, is timing; the creators will have just nine months to produce their works. 'It doesn't seem to be very serious,' Kunitz said of the project. 'It's sort of trolling.'
One sculptor even suggested that Trump may have to look to China for help with his ambitious project. Dylan Farnum, who formerly headed up the highly-esteemed Walla Walla Foundry, told Politico that America simply does not have the number of artists needed for such a task. 'You'd be flooding the capacity of artists in this country who do that kind of stuff, and the capacity of foundries,' Farnum said. 'There are places where you can really whip some stuff off. They can do it in China.'
Trump revamped his plan for the sculpture display in a new executive order earlier this year. 'The National Garden will be built to reflect the awesome splendor of our country's timeless exceptionalism,' the order says. 'The National Garden will feature a roll call of heroes who deserve honor, recognition, and lasting tribute because of the battles they won, the ideas they championed, the diseases they cured, the lives they saved, the heights they achieved, and the hope they passed down to all of us.'
The action also calls for the garden to be completed 'as expeditiously as possible.' However, it remains unclear where the garden will be or what the design will look like. The order calls for an appropriate space to be identified, though the governor of South Dakota has offered a location close to Mount Rushmore. The White House is currently receiving artists' applications to create sculptures until July 1.
The application process is being overseen by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The group, along with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) will contribute a total of $34 million for the project. Artists are asked to volunteer 10 - 20 names from Trump's list of U.S. heroes that they want to bring to life. A single applicant can be selected for up to three sculptures. Those selected can earn up to $200,000 per sculpture.
NBA legend Kobe Bryant, signer Whitney Houston, American gardener Johnny 'Appleseed' Chapman, Walt Disney, Harriet Tubman and more are on the list of heroes. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Jackie Robinson and Rosa Parks are also some of the names on the expansive catalog. Artists will not know the status of their applications until September - meaning they won't know which famous American they will be sculpting until then.
Once approved, artists will have until June 2026 to complete there statues and get them to the government roughly a month before the nation's 250th birthday on July 4, 2026. 'You put out an [request for proposal] and then there's just a long period working with the institutions,' Kunitz said. The editor noted that the Trump administration will likely work closely on the designs with the artists, which could, and likely will, slow down work on the hundreds of sculptures. 'A year is highly unlikely,' he said of the turnaround time. The NEH did not return the Daily Mail's request for comment.