In partnership with the family of Alex Odeh and Grand Central Art Center, the project sets a once-vandalized monument sculpture into motion, expanding a public memorial through community gatherings across the country.
Professor of Art Jon Rubin has launched The Stolen Dove, a new collaborative project that transforms part of a historic public monument into a traveling, community-centered memorial. The project centers on a bronze dove, part of a monument to Palestinian American poet, teacher, and civil-rights leader Alex Odeh. Installed in 1994 in front of the Santa Ana Public Library in California, the statue is the only public monument to an Arab American in the United States. Odeh, a regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, was assassinated in 1985 in a still-unsolved act of political violence. Over the past three decades, the monument has been repeatedly vandalized.
In 2020, the sculpture’s dove of peace was broken off and stolen. It was later recovered and reattached. With the support of the City of Santa Ana, Odeh’s family, and the monument’s original sculptor, Khalil Bendib, Rubin has now carefully removed the dove once more as part of an intentional public art project.
Rather than returning directly to the statue, the dove is traveling to a series of homes, schools, and cultural institutions connected to Odeh’s legacy. Each host organizes a public gathering to share the story of Odeh’s life, his advocacy for civil rights and interfaith dialogue, and the ongoing search for justice in his case. After passing the original dove along, hosts receive a precise replica, allowing the project to expand from a single sculpture into a growing network of stewards and storytellers. The original dove is scheduled to return to the monument in June 2026.
The project debuts its first public activation at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival in conjunction with the premiere of the documentary Who Killed Alex Odeh? Support for the project includes funding from the CFA Fund for Research and Creativity at Carnegie Mellon University, as well as foundation support for Grand Central Art Center’s artist residency programs.
Photos by Patrick Shartzer. Courtesy of Jon Rubin and Grand Central Art Center.