Pink Dolphin Monument is a public

monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, his ...

in R.A. Apffel Park/East Beach on

Galveston Island Galveston Island ( ) is a barrier island on the Texas Gulf Coast in the United States, about southeast of Houston. The entire island, with the exception of Jamaica Beach, is within the city limits of the City of Galveston in Galveston County. T ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. Inaugurated on July 25, 2014, the monument is dedicated to celebrating gender and sexual minority communities. It is the first monument dedicated to gender and sexual minorities in the southern

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

History

The Pink Dolphin Monument was created by artist Joe Joe Orangias, in collaboration with writer Dr. Sarah Sloane and scientist Dr. Frank Pega. Orangias carved the monument’s central figure - a pink dolphin - from red

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

sourced from the Texas coast. The image of the pink dolphin references the historic Pink Dolphin Tavern located in the city of

Galveston Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galvesto ...

. It also refers to the logo of the Pink Posse, a local group of gender and sexual minority activists. Orangias donated the monument to R.A. Apffel Park/East Beach to further the Park’s mission and contribute to honoring diversity on the island. "There are starting to be more monuments for gender and sexual minorities around the world, so this piece adds to that network," the artist told the ''

Galveston Daily News ''The Daily News'', formerly the ''Galveston County Daily News'' and ''Galveston Daily News'', is a newspaper published in Galveston, Texas, United States. It was first published April 11, 1842, making it the oldest newspaper in the U.S. state of ...

''. In 2015, Pink Dolphin Monument was featured in the "Island Time" exhibition at the

Contemporary Arts Museum Houston Contemporary Arts Museum Houston is a not-for-profit institution in the Museum District, Houston, Texas, founded in 1948, dedicated to presenting contemporary art to the public. As a non-collecting museum, it strives to provide a forum for visual ...

. Due to vandalism, artist Ryan Hawk completed a restoration project of the statue in 2019.

Design

The main statue is the approximate size of a small dolphin (36″ × 16″ × 13″). It is supported by a five-foot

plinth A pedestal (from French ''piédestal'', Italian ''piedistallo'' 'foot of a stall') or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In c ...

, which is designed to create an impression of a dolphin jumping overhead, in the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

surrounding Galveston Island. The monument is housed in an open-aired

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

and its pedestal replicates the columns that hold up the pavilion. The

statue A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to life-size; a sculpture t ...

is accompanied by the following poem: The carving of the dolphin statue resulted in 243 chips from the original sandstone boulder. Orangias carved these into 243 triangles and buried these on Galveston Island to further memorialize gender and sexual minorities into the landscape. The dust from carving the statue was collected and then poured into the ocean by participants at the unveiling ceremony. Pink Dolphin Monument (Burial 32 of 243).jpg, Pink Dolphin Monument (Burial 32 of 243), Galveston Island, Texas, 2014. Pink Dolphin Monument (plaque).jpg, Pink Dolphin Monument (plaque), R.A. Apffel Park, Galveston Island, Texas, 2014.

References

External links

* {{LGBT monuments and memorials 2014 establishments in Texas 2014 in LGBT history 2014 sculptures Dolphins in art LGBT culture in Texas LGBT monuments and memorials in the United States Monuments and memorials in Texas Outdoor sculptures in Texas Sandstone sculptures in the United States Stone sculptures in Texas Tourist attractions in Galveston, Texas Vandalized works of art in Texas

History

Design

See also

References

External links