CLEVELAND — The Community West Foundation, located in the Cleveland suburb of Westlake, has acquired the Matthew 25 Collection, by Canadian sculptor, Timothy Schmalz.
The statues reflect the 25th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, centering on valuing and caring for people.
“Imagine my thrill to be able to take our mission, and it doesn’t have to be words anymore,” explained Community West CEO Marty Uhle. “We can point to these sculptures, which have a 250-year lifespan, and put them right out on the street, they’re not in a museum, they’re in front of places that we serve.”
The bronze statues depict Jesus, and are meant to spark conversations around social justice, privilege, compassion and empathy.
“One of our board members saw one of the ‘Homeless Jesus’ statues in another state at a college campus and he brought the idea to us,” said Uhle, “and the artist was nice enough to sell us a replica version that we moved around the community to raise awareness.”
Last fall, someone even called the police, thinking the “Homeless Jesus” statue was a real person lying on a bench outside of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Bay Village.
Uhle said it later went viral online after one of the priests posted about the instance.
“All of a sudden, we are getting calls on Friday, the day after that, from India, Sweden, London, all over the United States. We couldn’t believe it, and by Saturday night, they had actually worked a joke into the ‘Weekend Update’ on ‘Saturday Night Live’ about the statue,” he added.
Now, the Community West Foundation will have all six real, original bronze statues of the collection, instead of just the one replica.
Cleveland is the only city, other than Rome, to showcase the full Matthew 25 collection.
It took five months longer than expected to get all six statues from the artist’s foundry in Asia to Cleveland due to global shipping delays.
“It’s not about religion specifically,” said Uhle, “we are not affiliated with a church, we see the social justice issues as so important, and you have these statues start to come in a few days before Christmas. We think it’s fantastic timing.”
The final statue will be installed spring 2022. The foundation says the artwork collection represents its mission to advance the health and well-being of the community.
The statues are featured in locations across Cleveland’s west side.
