Dome Of Unity Will Turn Joliet Into Laughingstock, Jan Quillman Tells Mayor D'Arcy, Council

JOLIET, IL — Joliet Mayor Terry D'Arcy's recommendation to spend $197,000 on a Chinese-born artist's Dome of Unity sculpture for the new Downtown Joliet City Square resulted in Monday night's meeting becoming extremely heated, as elected officials raised their voices and Mayor D'Arcy pounded his gavel at different times in trying to restore order.

Monday was the discussion-only meeting for the Council. The Tuesday night meeting is when the votes are taken. On Monday, a half-dozen community leaders spoke at the podium, offering praise for the Dome of Unity proposal.

They included: Joliet restaurant owner Tom Grotovsky and Illinois Rock & Roll Museum founder Ron Romero, both of the Joliet arts commission; Garland Mays, a community leader; and Amy Sanchez, a long-time Joliet community activist. Additional speakers were Bob Navarro, CEO of the Heritage Corridor Convention and Visitors Bureau; Quinn Adamowski of the Joliet Area Historical Museum; and Emanuel Lopez, who just became executive director of Joliet's City Center Partnership on July 29.

However, based on the tone of Monday's discussion, it appears that Joliet Mayor Terry D'Arcy may have to cast the tie-breaking vote in order to make Joliet a Dome of Unity community when the vote takes place at Tuesday night's meeting.

After all of Monday night's audience speakers finished with their glowing remarks about The Dome of Unity, Joliet's longest serving elected official, six-term Councilwoman Jan Quillman offered a blistering criticism of the project created by artist Sijia Chen, who now resides in Los Angeles.

Quillman explained that the city's website gave residents the mistaken impression that there would be input gathered from them during the final selection phase. Instead, the city's arts commission made the decision, recommending The Dome of Unity as its preferred piece of artwork.

"I'm not against art at all," Quillman declared. "But, right now, we're telling people this is that and that's this. You tell them, oh, we had to do the gas tax, and we have to do the grocery tax. Gas tax has been in place a long time, and our roads and sidewalks are still a mess.

"And these are the people out there struggling with their everyday medicine and food and housing and everything, etc. So this is what's getting to them. They feel they don't have a word. So they submitted their things and they still in the end are left out because you've already committed yourself to The Dome of Unity.

"And last but not least, this came out from Joliet's city communications department 2025, guess what? Back in spring, the Dome of Unity on here," Quillman revealed. "People think, well, that was printed months ago then it's already a done deal, why do you need our information? Why do you care about us at all? So this is the crux of the whole thing, people, and I'm not happy about it, either.

"And, so, I am their voice, and they've stopped me in the grocery store, stopped me at senior meetings, City Hall meetings, neighborhood meetings, phone calls, emails, and I've looked at everything online, pro and con, and there's more con than there are pro," Quillman said. "But I'm speaking for my residents because that's why they elected me. I am citywide and ... I know I'm not going to be the popular one around here because you all want this Dome of Unity. Well, if you ask me, it looks just like an old wiffle ball, or a paper cutting that's printed like this. And Joliet deserves better than that. And that's my opinion; they should have had input. That piece of art should have exemplified what the city of Joliet is and the history of it ... I would rather have The Bean here than this wiffle ball, to be honest. I'm not an artist, but I know that what I've been hearing .... so please, Jan, will you voice our opinion, and that's what I'm doing, I'm voicing their opinion right now."

Before she ended her remarks, Quillman held up the city of Joliet's graphic illustration of the City Square construction project, already showing the Dome of Unity in place.

"But this is questionable," Quillman suggested. "You have to admit, this is questionable, we have not even voted on this yet and it's already on the Joliet communications brochure. So, it looks to me like it was a done deal a long time ago, and I feel like we should have used local artists, not artists from out of town and if you wanted somebody famous, get somebody famous because no one knows who this lady is. She's, this is just a paper cut, a paper cutout. All of her artwork is paper cutouts painted blue or red, gold, whatever.

"And we're getting a white wiffle ball," Quillman raised her voice in anger. "And those are not only my opinions, but I agree with everybody that has called me on this and I'm kind of concerned because on her website, it says ... she collaborates with communities to create a dialogue between personal narratives and shared histories.

"Well, who did she collaborate with on this? Does the commission say, did she collaborate with anybody? No. She just made this little piece of ball and cut out the holes and says, here's your Dome of Unity and put a name on it and everybody got excited, OK. I get the art, I understand, you want this piece, you want it for Joliet, but when things are messed up right now. So, yes, I'm on my soapbox tonight, but, the designs are not unique, if she had cut something out that represented the city of Joliet's steel and stone and the culture and the diversity here, but it doesn't say anything and people are going to come and look at it and I think we're going to be a laughingstock. A laughingstock."