Among the six shortlisted designs for the Billie Holiday monument, to be erected at the Jamaica Performing Arts Center (JPAC) in Queens, New York, are those by Caribbean-rooted artists Tavares Strachan (The Bahamas) and La Vaughn Belle (U.S. Virgin Islands). Elena Goukassian (The Art Newspaper) reminds readers that the public is encouraged to provide feedback on the proposals until May 31, 2026. The renderings are on view in the JPAC’s lobby until then.
The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs has selected six finalist proposals for a new monument that will pay tribute to the legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday in Queens, the New York borough where she once lived and performed. The winning project will be announced over the summer and will eventually be installed adjacent to a reflecting pool on the front lawn of the Jamaica Performing Art s Center (JPAC).
“Of all the music titans who have called Queens home, few stand taller or shine brighter than Billie Holiday,” Donovan Richards Jr, the Queens borough president, said in a statement. “More than 65 years after her passing, her unmistakable voice and dynamic legacy continue to inspire performers across borough, city, state, nation and world. It’s only right that she be forever honoured at the Jamaica Performing Arts Center, a venue she would have undoubtedly loved.”
The six proposals all come from Black artists, hailing from around the world, invited to submit designs after a site visit and meeting with scholars and relatives of the late singer. Finalists include the Bahamian conceptual artist Tavares Strachan, La Vaughn Belle from the US Virgin Islands, the Brooklyn-based sculptor Tanda Francis and Nikesha Breeze from Portland, Oregon. Rounding out the list are the British artist Thomas J Price, whose monument to a Black woman in Times Square became a political talking point last year, and Nekisha Durrett from Washington, DC, whose work features at the Obama Presidential Center and Museum in Chicago.
The artists’ designs vary from realism to abstraction, at times falling somewhere in between. Belle imagines Holiday in a pensive mood before performing [. . .].
Finally, Strachan’s proposal is both an abstraction and a profile—a stone sculpture that looks like a vessel but, upon close inspection, the large vase is revealed as the negative space between two facing profiles of Holiday. [. . .]
For full article, see https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/05/20/billie-holiday-monument-queens-finalists
[Shown above: Tavares Strachan’s The Very Thought of You (artwork proposal)Courtesy the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.]
Among the six shortlisted designs for the Billie Holiday monument, to be erected at the Jamaica Performing Arts Center (JPAC) in Queens, New York, are those by Caribbean-rooted artists Tavares Strachan (The Bahamas) and La Vaughn Belle (U.S. Virgin Islands). Elena Goukassian (The Art Newspaper) reminds readers that the public is encouraged to provide feedback on the
