On June 22, 2024, Gary Weisman unveiled his outdoor bronze commission for the John Jones Museum in Elmira, NY.

John Jones, enslaved, escaped to upstate New York. On June 3, 1844, at the age of 27, John fled north to the place his mother had told him about “where there is no slavery.” It took one month for John, his two half-brothers, George and Charles, and Jefferson Brown and John Smith from an adjoining estate to walk from Virginia to New York, a distance of about 300 miles. After founding an underground railroad to St Catherine, Ontario, John was able to secure freedom for over 800 others. Of those 800, none were captured or returned to the South.

Gary Weisman is the 2023 recipient of the Sculpture House Annual Award. He teaches sculpture classes at the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts in Old Lyme, CT and maintains the Weisman/Ziegler Art Foundry in upstate New York.