Humanists’ Vision Persists Despite Delay

In the shadow of the towering Christmas tree on the Green, a Humanist vision appeared.

The vision was a temporary design of what organizers hope will be a light-filled art installation to emerge there, adding another voice to community celebrations. Unlike the meaning within the other displays, the Yale Humanist Community (YHC)‘s message represents pursuit of an ethical life and personal fulfillment through an atheistic, agnostic, or non-religious lens.

But it won’t be completed in time for this year’s Christmas tree-lighting. First YHC needs to finish raising the money to have the installation — the ​“Green Light Project” — ready for next winter.

The YHC unveiled its conceptual art project on the Green Sunday evening before a group of 25 people, including Mayor Toni Harp. The point was in part to get the word out for the ongoing fundraising push.

The YHC raised $17,418 from April 2 to May 11, 2016, with 135 supporters through an online crowdsourcing site. A fundraising comedy show, ​“Humanity Calamity!” at Creative Arts Workshop, followed the event, with $50 admission tickets, $25 for students. YHC also hosted several events in April and May to raise money for the project. To date, the group has raised $25,000 in total.

The sculpture’s designer and creator, Edwin ​“Ted” Salmon, said the materials, fabrication and installation will cost approximately $40,000 without the LED lights.

In addition to being an artist, Salmon owns EWS 3‑D, a custom metal fabrication business in East Haven. (Unrelated to this public installation, he will have a show at Reynolds Fine Art Gallery in New Haven in February 2017.) 

YHC Executive Director Chris Stedman said a total of $55,000 is needed for the sculpture complete with interactive lighting. There are additional soft costs, including marketing and community events to engage people from across Greater New Haven. YHC is also trying to fund an initial endowment for annual installation, dismantling, and storage, plus liability insurance, structural engineering reports, permits, and other related costs. Stedman estimated these expenses will amount to an additional $48,500, making the total that the organization needs to raise $103,500.

To make a donation, visit the project website.

Stedman noted that there is a temptation to stay inside and become isolated during the winter. ​“Our hope is during the coldest, and darkest season of the year, this piece of public art will go up and celebrate our ability as human beings to come together to create light and warmth,” he said.

The nine-sided, two-story public sculpture will be made of cut aluminum, steel, plexiglass and 40,000 LED lights. Salmon will transport the actual object in three pieces and assemble it on the Green, using a crane. For the conceptual rendering, Salmon set up a 3‑D cardboard model of the top section of the sculpture. It showed drawings of scenes that will depict people coming together, for example, watching the Fourth of July fireworks or planting community gardens. The number of sides represents the nine squares of New Haven’s original town plan. Motion detectors will change the light colors across a blue, green, yellow, orange, red, and pink spectrum, turning to warmer colors as people approach. When people gather around the artwork, the lights will flicker to resemble a heartbeat.

The lower section walls will display poetry and words about community. The structure will contain a time capsule with messages from the community. In 122 years, in 2138, the time capsule will be opened to honor the 500th anniversary of the founding of the City of New Haven.

Any member of the public can include a note in the time capsule, using this link.

Seeds for this art project were planted in December 2013, while Stedman was the assistant humanist chaplain at Harvard University. He appeared on a ​“Christmas Under Attack” segment on the Fox News program, ​“The O’Reilly Factor.” Bill O’Reilly asserted political correctness and atheists were threatening celebrations of Christmas. Stedman reaffirmed his belief in the separation of church and state but emphasized that instead of trying to stop Christmas-related activities, atheists could approach the holidays as an opportunity to offer the positive ideas of humanism. ​“Culture wars break out so often, when there’s another way forward. Instead of trying to fight over who is going to get this little turf in the public square, there’s plenty of space for us all to be in conversation with one another and create universal celebrations of humanity,” he said.

At the end of the announcement on the Green, the presenters distributed glow sticks. The creation of light through the mixing of two chemicals represented the outcome of people coming together.

“I think it will be a wonderful addition to have something that includes all. Personally, I am unaffiliated. I was raised in Christianity. It’s not something I feel like I would reject but it’s nice to feel that there is something that is inclusive of all people, regardless of their creed or lack thereof,” said Carolyn Gretton, the wife of Tom Krattenmaker, who serves on the YHC board of directors and is also the director of communications at Yale Divinity School.

Eighty-three percent of Americans identity themselves as Christian, according to ABC/Beliefnet polling results reported in July 2016. In such a context, it is unsurprising that the word ​“godless” often bears negative connotations, synonymous with ​“wicked” or ​“without justice.”

However, Stedman clarified the humanists’ agenda as standing on the side of the dignity and worth of all people. He referred to the Martin Luther King, Jr. quote, ​“The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice.”

“Humanists believe that the bending process doesn’t just happen. That it’s up to human beings to bend the arc of the moral universe towards justice. That is our community’s agenda, that is to advance justice and to align ourselves with opportunities to do so.”