DETROIT — A year ago, the plan for the much anticipated RoboCop statue seemed clear. Once completed, it would be installed somewhere outside Detroit's Michigan Science Center in the spring or summer.
Now the final destination for the monument to pop culture is up in the air again. And the reason is tied to the widespread economic hit that's been taken by museums because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Michigan Science Center will no longer be the permanent home for the grassroots-driven work of art, as first reported by the Metro Times.
In a statement, the museum expressed gratitude for being part of the RoboCop statue's journey since 2018, when it was announced that the 11-foot-tall bronze sculpture would be installed on its grounds.
The statement explained that "given the pandemic's unprecedented pressures, MiSci's resources must now be entirely focused on our core mission of serving Michigan's students and families.”
It’s the latest detour in an origin story that began in 2011 with an offbeat idea that launched a successful crowdfunding campaign led by a community arts group, Imagination Station.
Brandon Walley, a Detroit filmmaker and key part of the Imagination Station's quest to make the RoboCop dream a reality, told the Free Press on Wednesday that the statue is essentially done.
"It's all assembled and put together," said Walley, adding that the last step of adding the final patina is underway. "This is just the last final detailing to make sure that everything is great and good to go.”
Walley said Imagination Station will proceed actively with securing a new site once the restrictions and realities of COVID-19 make such a process possible. Putting safety first is the top goal at the moment.
“He will need a home and we’re exploring possibilities ….”We’re still going through a pandemic so we’re just happy to have it completed," said Walley.
The museum's decision is "totally understandable," according to Walley.
"I just hope for their success coming out of this pandemic," he said. "They like the RoboCop statue and are going to be involved” in making sure it finds a home, possibly as a partner in that endeavor.
The Michigan Science Center, a private non-profit museum that doesn't receive government operating funding, praised the statue in the statement by saying, “The creation of the bronze work, which combines centuries-old metalworking techniques with 21st-century technology, remains an amazing STEM story."
It also noted that it "hopes to be able to support Imagination Station in the search for a new and appropriate home for this iconic work."
The spark for the RoboCop statue happened in 2011, when a Twitter message sent to Detroit's then-mayor Dave Bing generated enough public response to go viral.
Back then, a Massachusetts man suggested to Bing that the cyborg police officer from the 1987 sci-fi cult hit "RoboCop" could serve as a Motor City ambassador, much like the statue of Rocky does in Philadelphia.
The Imagination Station's grassroots fundraising ended up raising more than $67,000. Thousands of fans expressed support for the campaign, including the 1987 film’s star, Peter Weller, who made a video for Funny or Die that was a comic endorsement of the idea.
The journey to make the statue a reality has lasted so long that it outlived a 2014 remake of the original “RoboCop” that starred Joel Kinnaman.
Giorgio Gikas has overseen the making of the RoboCop statue at Detroit’s Venus Bronze Works, one of the leading sculptural restoration and conservation businesses in the nation. Gikas, an art conservation expert, has spent decades restoring iconic local works like the Joe Louis fist, the "Spirit of Detroit” statue and more.
Before work could even start, however, there were numerous legal and technical hurdles to overcome, including obtaining copyright permission and navigating the many complicated mold and model-making steps in the lead-up to the pouring of the casts.
In May 2018, Imagination Station announced that the statue would have a home on the grounds of the Michigan Science Center, which then was under the direction of president and CEO Tonya Matthews.
In January 2020, the new head of the science center, Christian Greer, told the Free Press that didn’t want to get into specifics about any installation until the work was finished, and he noted that any effort would have to fit into an already busy schedule.
Walley said Wednesday that the pedestal for the statue also has been completed and will be attached to it whenever an installation takes place.
The statue's future is temporarily unresolved, but Walley remains optimistic that a new plan is just a matter of time.
Like the Motor City cyborg cop Murphy, aka RobCop, said to an injured colleague in the 1987 movie: “They’ll fix you. They fix everything.”
