An artist's rendering of the proposed eight-foot monument by Sebastian Mortarana.
An artist’s rendering of the proposed eight-foot monument by Sebastian Mortarana.

But it still might not happen.

The Baltimore Sun reports that the city’s Public Art Commission has approved the design of a proposed shrine to iconic drag queen and John Waters muse Divine that would stand near the intersection of Read and Tyson streets. The salvaged marble steps will no doubt conform nicely to the design of Baltimore’s historic rowhomes. And I guess the bronze dog excrement won’t be totally out of place either.

The commission has yet to vote on officially accepting the monument as a gift to the city, but the group pulling for the creation of the shrine is currently facing a different snag: “all the enthusiasm” surrounding the piece isn’t “translating into giving.” Currently the Divine Monument Kickstarter campaign has collected less than $10,000 in pledges over 23 days. They have a little more than a month left to make their goal of $70,000. Organizer Michal Makarovich told the Sun the group is “in despair, some days, that this might not happen.”

If we all pull together, we can end that despair. Here’s the Kickstarter page.

6 replies on “Baltimore’s Public Art Commission Approves Proposed Divine Monument”

  1. Why isn’t anyone admitting that this is an ugly monument? Why isn’t anyone pointing out that the artist is trying to pay himself with that $70k, thats a damn rip off and NOT a $70k monument. If they want the publics money, they should allow us to vote on the design. Even John Waters isn’t TOTALLY saying he’s on board.

  2. I enjoy art, and feel I can appreciate many different interpretations including subject matter that I don’t necessarily agree with or prefer, however to me this monument is creepy looking, ( looks like a tombstone to begin with) and because it is so creepy looking it probably would not achieve whatever goal(s) it was intended for. I’d rather see the money go toward a scholarship fund for students who wish to study and produce art of this genre. Or, perhaps the money could go toward supporting anti-hate organizations that raise awareness and support acceptance for all.

  5. Fellow LGBTQIA’s, do we really need to add dog feces to this memorial? We will get what we want as one of an intended main purpose of this monument / to insult and offend the majority of citizens without the dog feces. The addition of dog feces just makes the community look nasty, vile and vulgar to the people we are demanding unconstitutional respect and acceptance from.it could be detrimental to our cause. Do we really need to hit them with both barrels so to speak?

    1. lol @ unconstitutional– I meant unconditional. Anyhow you get what I mean. We would still insult and offend the vast majority of citizens as a main purpose without the dog feces that would only reinforce people’s idea that we are perverts and queer / strange , unusual and odd

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