Former cult leader’s name still on public art in downtown Little Rock

The Arkansas Times/December 9, 2024

By Milo Strain

A disgraced former cult leader’s name is still on a piece of public art in Little Rock, despite a city spokesperson’s assurance in July that the name would be removed.

“Responding is spirit in action. We are the change agents that give rise to the possibilities that don’t exist,” the quote reads. Engraved on a basalt pillar in Inspiration Plaza, the newest piece of public art in downtown Little Rock, the quote and its origins are puzzling.

The quote is attributed to a man named Andrew Cohen — a self-proclaimed guru and spiritual teacher accused of physical and mental abuse and financial exploitation by many of his former students and followers, including his own mother — but it isn’t clear if he ever actually said it.

So why is the quote etched in stone in a statue garden by the Arkansas River? Because At-Large City Director Dean Kumpuris’ wife chose it. (This article from July will catch you up on the convoluted details.)

Essentially, Cohen’s name made it all the way on to the statue, seemingly without anyone checking who he is, if the quote is his, or if the quote is even real. During our reporting, a spokesperson for the Little Rock Parks and Recreation Department provided a statement that said the city would replace Cohen’s name with “Anonymous” but leave the quote itself intact, since staff liked its message and, in researching it, could not find where it came from.

We couldn’t find the quote anywhere either, but Cohen has written a dozen books and given lectures since the late 1980s. It’s possible that the quote is his, and simply isn’t anywhere on the internet.

So why is Cohen’s name still on the statue?

On Dec. 6, a parks spokesperson said the department is “still working to locate a contractor with the equipment needed for that type of stone.”

“We don’t currently have a timeline for the project,” they said.

Earlier, on Nov. 19, in response to questions about why Cohen’s name hadn’t been removed yet, Parks and Recreation Operations Manager Justin Dorsey said he had “reached out to the original vendor.”

“They are working to schedule a sandblaster that is able to make the necessary repairs,” Dorsey said.

The original vendor is presumably the National Sculptors Guild, a Colorado-based company that designed and created Inspiration Plaza and many of Little Rock’s other public statues.

The National Sculptors Guild did not respond to a request for comment.

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