Announcement from the City of Moscow

Andrew Becker Memorial at the ITC Sculpture Garden

Slated for permanent installation in October 2022 is an artwork by J. Casey Doyle featuring a stack of three [Aluminum] cloud forms and a [copper] ladder. This artwork is a memorial to Andrew Thatcher Becker, a longtime Moscow resident whose advocacy for people with disabilities greatly impacted the community.

The artwork installation was made possible by a donation from Becker’s family, with additional funding from the City of Moscow to support the use of materials impervious to environmental degradation.

Artists from across Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Montana, Wyoming, and Utah were invited to submit proposals for this project in 2021. Doyle’s artwork was selected for its alignment with Becker’s core beliefs in the dignity of all people, the equity of accessible communities, and the value of pathways both literal and figurative: smooth sidewalks to travel or communications that connect people to one another.

Accessibility, communication, compassion, understanding, and courage were watchwords for Becker, whose spirit of inclusion infused all of his work in Moscow. After studying political science at the University of Idaho, Becker pursued activism in many forms, including teaching as well as advocacy for human rights and the rights of people with disabilities. Becker shared energy with his community at Milestone Decisions and in service to the Moscow Human Rights Task Force, City of Moscow Human Rights Commission, and the Mobility Task Force.

Noted in the presentation of the design to the donor, the Moscow Arts Commission, and City Council were the following highlights about the artwork’s form and content:

The location itself speaks to access, not just to multiple modes of transit, but also to higher education’s invitation to explore multiple avenues of thinking.

Clouds, like human rights, belong to everyone and no one all at the same time. Their borders are open and flexible, adapting to conditions.

The clouds stack like cairns, announcing a sense of place as well as mutual, compassionate reliance on community.

The ladder speaks to the courage to transcend, to progress through stages of growth and life.

Open spaces inside the ribbon clouds include and invite viewer, and have the potential to interact with the environment.