PS Resorts and The Seward Johnson Atelier, Inc. (owners of the Forever Marilyn statue) have reached an agreement to bring the celebrated 26-foot-tall sculpture back to Palm Springs.
Although contracts are still in-process, an agreement has been reached and the plans include the installation of artist Seward Johnson’s Forever Marilyn statue to return to Palm Springs in February 2020. The price of the sculpture has not been released at this time.
The Forever Marilyn statue originally stood in Chicago for 10 months before coming to Palm Springs in 2012. She stood at the intersection of Tahquitz Canyon and Palm Canyon Drive until March of 2014 before moving to Hamilton, New Jersey, as part of a 2014 retrospective honoring Johnson.
The site plan for the installation, pending the approval of all respective parties, is the entry courtyard of the Town and Country Center. Built in 1948, the center was one of the first high-profile real estate projects for the city and sits between Indian Canyon and Palm Canyon Drive, between Tahquitz Canyon and East Andreas Road.
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The team from the Seward Johnson Atelier will install the sculpture after it once again travels across the country in an open flatbed truck from the artist’s East Coast studio, arriving for a spectacular crane-lift install process in Palm Springs. The celebrations for Marilyn’s arrival have yet to be planned, but the community will be informed as those details develop.
The successful completion of this project comes thanks to many key members of the Palm Springs political, tourist and cultural arenas, including Grit Development.
Seward Johnson, 89, notes, "I am so very pleased that Marilyn will be permanently on view in Palm Springs. It was, after all, a location of her own choosing, and I assume that she was drawn to the beauty and stillness of the landscape. There is something about her pose; the exuberance for life without inhibition, which is quintessentially American, and very fitting for Palm Springs. It expresses an uninhibited sense of our own vibrancy."
Aftab Dada, chairman of PS Resorts adds, “As in the past, the Board of PS Resorts is thrilled to have Marilyn back on a permanent basis. Marilyn will once again prove to be a huge economic driver and a benefit to our downtown."
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