Monumental Sculpture Returning to Wisconsin Avenue to Honor Vel R. Phillips

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — The City of Milwaukee, Milwaukee Downtown Business Improvement District No. 21, America’s Black Holocaust Museum, and Sculpture Milwaukee are pleased to announce the installation of Within the Folds (Dialogue 1) (2020), a nine-foot bronze sculpture by the celebrated British artist Thomas J. Price, in Vel R. Phillips Plaza. The installation on June 11 marks the return of Price’s figure of a casually dressed Black man to Wisconsin Avenue, where the piece debuted in Milwaukee at the US Bank Center as part of Sculpture Milwaukee’s 2020 public art exhibition. An informal recognition of the installation of Within the Folds will take place at the plaza at 5:30 p.m. June 11, and a full celebration will follow in July.

The London-born Price develops the people he depicts in his art from an amalgamation of images of men and women he observes in everyday life. He sculpts digitally, then constructs his larger-than-life figures piece by piece. And by representing Black men and women in moments of contemplation and reverie—elevated by their scale and appearance bronze, marble, and other materials long equated with power and importance—Price challenges the expectation that valorization in art is just for the elite. “My figures are fictional people trying to communicate real moments — we recognize ourselves in the way they’re standing, before we even get to race or gender. They’re a celebration of the everyday,” Price recently told The New York Times.

Presenting Within the Folds in Vel R. Phillips Plaza is a fitting tribute to the plaza’s namesake, a petite woman of five foot one who used her outsized energy and impact to help everyday people live better lives. Vel R. Phillips (Velvalea Hortense Rodgers Phillips, 1923-2018) was a trailblazer in Milwaukee and Wisconsin politics. In 1956, she became the first woman and the first African American elected to Milwaukee’s Common Council. A fierce advocate for civil rights and fair housing, she later became the first African American judge in Wisconsin and the first African American person to be elected to statewide office when she won her race for Secretary of State in 1978.

The young Black man represented in Within the Folds—his posture proud and upright; his gaze fixed on the distance; his sweats draped softly across his body, echoing the folding robes of so many ancient pols memorialized in bronze—invites viewers to contemplate his quiet, relatable strength.

“The work of Thomas J. Price has been celebrated in Milwaukee, and it is an honor to have Within the Folds back on display at Vel R. Phillips Plaza,” Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said. “It is a powerful work, a monument to dignity and strength. Within the Folds displays humanity in a very accessible way. City government is happy it can assist in sharing the sculpture at such a prominent location.”

Price’s towering figure will also salute “the extraordinary power that existed in Vel. The installation of Price’s work is a magnificent and poignant articulation of the power of representation and public discourse,” said Brad Pruitt, executive director of America’s Black Holocaust Museum. “The piece’s presence also serves as an ode to the lifelong support, partnership and collaboration with young people that Vel had, most notably with the members of the NAACP Youth Council whom she and Father Groppi led in 200 days of protests for fair housing in Milwaukee from 1967 to 1968.”

America’s Black Holocaust Museum acquired Within the Folds when it was purchased for the museum by an anonymous donor in 2021. During its temporary installation, it will stand as a visual and philosophical prelude to I Didn’t Do It Alone, a permanent memorial honoring Ms. Phillips by the acclaimed artist Karyn Olivier that will be installed in Vel R. Phillips Plaza in 2026. Out of 60 project submissions, Ms. Olivier’s work was selected by the City’s Art Committee in 2024.

“My mother’s name has been so connected with young Black girls, and rightly so. But I am overjoyed that a sculpture of a young Black man will stand at the plaza,” said Ms. Phillips’ son, attorney Michael Phillips. “It’s an opportunity to offer young Black men, who face significant difficulties in this country, the sustenance borne of my mother’s mission to help people, to bathe them in the entire Wisconsin ethos that flows from her history and her legacy.”

“The addition of the Vel R. Phillips Plaza and the installation of the Thomas J. Price sculpture serve to revitalize Milwaukee’s downtown,” said Alderman Robert Bauman, who represents the 4th Aldermanic District, which includes the plaza. “I am confident that these improvements will help us welcome residents from communities from far and near as well as new friends who may have never visited the city before.”

“Vel R. Phillips through her decades of public service left behind a tremendous legacy—one that is rooted in strength and an unwavering fortitude. I am honored and forever fortunate to have had her guidance and counsel as I started my own journey into public service, and as I represent the 6th Aldermanic District,” said Alderwoman Milele A. Coggs. “The Vel R. Phillips Plaza, this wonderful sculpture, and all the public art that will adorn this space exemplify the beauty and strength with which she served this community.”

These initiatives to celebrate Ms. Phillips in Milwaukee follow the installation of a bronze commemorative sculpture of Ms. Phillips by the late artist Radcliffe Bailey that was unveiled on the grounds of the Wisconsin State Capitol in June 2024. Another work of Bailey’s, Pensive (2013)—a figure depicting African American writer, historian, sociologist, editor, and activist W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) deep in thought—was exhibited by Sculpture Milwaukee before it found a permanent home in Milwaukee on Water Street, in front of BMO Tower. Along with the ongoing annual exhibitions of contemporary monumental art installed on the streets of downtown Milwaukee by Sculpture Milwaukee, they reflect a deepening commitment to public art in the city and across the state.

“What’s happening here, in a very exciting way, is that cultural and civic institutions with seemingly disparate interests are coming together to collaborate out of shared recognition of the power of art and culture to create a better society,” said Sculpture Milwaukee Executive Director John Riepenhoff. “Thomas J. Price’s artwork is iconic, photogenic, and highly relevant. And bringing it back for viewers to interact with and have their own experiences around is a great example of how we’re building tremendous cultural capital and resources here in Milwaukee, and across Wisconsin. The contributions that arts give to our wellness, to our mental and physical health, and to our cultural identity are powerful and well worth celebrating.”

The increasing presence and enjoyment of public art in Milwaukee, and the connectivity and interest among arts and civic organizations that have come together to support and promote it, also excites Mr. Pruitt. According to a 2023 study by Imagine MKE he cited, Milwaukee’s nonprofit arts and culture organizations also contribute significantly to growing our economy, generating more than $330 million in annual economic activity. “In a post-industrial city that yet has to fully recover from decades of job losses, growing the creative economy can play a significant role in our reemergence. This is not just about aesthetics, this is not just about inspiration—this is about vibrancy, community, and economic development,” Mr. Pruitt said.

“The arts enrich culture across our state and are a critically important economic driver for local communities and our state’s economy, helping attract people from all over to visit and move to our state,” said Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers. “This sculpture project is a great way to visualize the rich histories, cultures, and experiences that are an integral part of who we are as a state and as Wisconsinites, and I’m grateful to all the partners who helped make this a reality.”

About the Artist
Born in 1981, Thomas J. Price lives and works in London. He studied at Chelsea College of Art and the Royal College of Art, London, and has held solo exhibitions at institutions including: The Power Plant, Toronto; The National Portrait Gallery, London; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and Kunsthalle Krems, Austria. Price’s work is held in collections such as the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Brooklyn Museum, New York; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; and The Legacy Museum, Montgomery, Alabama.

Price’s work is currently on view in Times Square in New York City; included in the traveling exhibition “The Time Is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure,” which began at the National Portrait Gallery in London; and on view at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, North Carolina. In March 2025, Price opened a multi-venue exhibition in Florence Italy across Piazza della Signoria, Palazzo Vecchio and Museo Novecento. This September the artist will unveil the inaugural Neil Balvanes Tallawoladah Lawn Commission at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Australia.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.