Monument Lab

Re:Generation team “Mapping Trans Joy,” is a trans-run, joy-as-resistance project, combining physical interventions, public art installations, public events, and oral history collection in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Jackson, Mississippi; Hinton, West Virginia; Decatur, Georgia, and other partner sites across the Southeast. Team Members include: Sophie Ziegler, SK Groll, Nathalie Nia Foulk, and Morgan Udoh. As a central part of Monument Lab’s commitment to expanding the American commemorative landscape, Re:Generation emphasizes the selection of projects with creative representation and interpretation of erased, suppressed, or threatened stories and histories, particularly in states which have passed legislation limiting the teaching of accurate and diverse American history. Major support for Re:Generation is provided by Mellon Foundation.

Re:Generation Spotlight: “Klondike Memory Project,” has gathered oral histories and archival community records as part of efforts to revitalize this historically Black neighborhood through a community land trust. The archive will find its permanent home in a museum and cultural center located in the historic residence of Memphis, Tennessee hero Tom Lee, with a companion website designed to connect residents with community histories and resources. Team Members include: Ms. Quincey Morris, Corey Davis, Dr. Eziza Ogbeiwi-Risher, Randall Garrett, Margaret Haltom, Tracie Allen, Reginald Johnson, Sr., Joyce Cox, and Diamond Thompson-Smith. As a central part of Monument Lab’s commitment to expanding the American commemorative landscape, Re:Generation emphasizes the selection of projects with creative representation and interpretation of erased, suppressed, or threatened stories and histories, particularly in states which have passed legislation limiting the teaching of accurate and diverse American history. Major support for Re:Generation is provided by the Mellon Foundation.

Re:Generation Spotlight: “The Legacy of 87 Adams,” anchored by Calvary Episcopal Church, as part of a solid coalition of community partners and allies, is engaged in a design process towards an enduring memorial and archive honoring the estimated 3,800 enslaved people sold on the adjoining property, which was the site of a slave market run by Confederate general and noted white supremacist Nathan Bedford Forrest in Memphis, Tennessee. Team Members include: Reverend Scott Walters, Rich Watkins, Earnestine Jenkins, Tim Huebner, Margaret Haltom, Annie Parker, Dorothy Wells, David Lusk, and Margaret Craddock. As a central part of Monument Lab’s commitment to expanding the American commemorative landscape, Re:Generation emphasizes the selection of projects with creative representation and interpretation of erased, suppressed, or threatened stories and histories, particularly in states which have passed legislation limiting the teaching of accurate and diverse American history. Major support for Re:Generation is provided by the Mellon Foundation.

Re:Generation team “The Descendants Project,” is designing a landscape architecture intervention: a labyrinth, meditation ground, and site of public memory dedicated to liberation struggles and victories against slavery, colonialism, and industrial encroachment. Rooted in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana, it will be produced in collaboration with surrounding communities and in support of potential Landmark status by the National Park Service. Team Members include: Jo Banner, Joy Banner, Mary Niall Mitchell, and Kalie Ann Dutra. As a central part of Monument Lab’s commitment to expanding the American commemorative landscape, Re:Generation emphasizes the selection of projects with creative representation and interpretation of erased, suppressed, or threatened stories and histories, particularly in states which have passed legislation limiting the teaching of accurate and diverse American history. Major support for Re:Generation is provided by the Mellon Foundation.

Re:Generation Spotlight: “High Iron,” is a traveling piece of public art—a modified train car—that will journey westward from Laramie, Wyoming, connecting former rail towns along the Interstate 80 corridor. It will house an interactive labor exhibit, an oral history collection station, and will be a center of accompanying community programming in each city it visits. High Iron explores stories of ancestors who built the transcontinental railroad, shining light on buried narratives of an incredibly diverse state, a culture of care, and immigrant contribution. Join the High Iron team for “Building a Living Monument to Labor,” a virtual talk on October 28, at 7:30pm ET, presented by the Public Art Exchange, featuring artists Aubrey Edwards and Conor Mullen, along with Laura Zorch McDermit, executive director of Laramie Public Art Coalition. The conversation will dive into the ambitious project to build a new monument for rail labor in Wyoming. RSVP: https://lnkd.in/dzujNzXj Major support for Re:Generation is provided by the Mellon Foundation.

The William H. Gray III Memorial Foundation, in partnership with Amtrak and Monument Lab, is conducting an Open Call for Artist Ideas to envision and build a monumental “living memorial” to Congressman Gray’s legacy and values. The memorial will be situated within the great hall of Gray 30th Street Station, the historic train depot in Philadelphia that engages over 100,000 people each day. The memorial process is an opportunity to create a new, iconic landmark for the city and its main train station gateway. Interested artists are invited to complete an online application through December 4, 2024. https://lnkd.in/eeSviVYY

Join Monument Lab 2024 Fellow  Cannupa Hanska Luger and director Paul Farber for a conversation about Luger’s Public Art Fund exhibition “Attrition,” on view at City Hall Park. Attrition is a 10-foot-long, larger-than-life skeletal sculpture made from steel with an ash-black patina. The arresting form emerges from the soil beneath, visible through grasses indigenous to this region. The work highlights the profound interdependence between animals, humans, and the land. It draws attention to the loss, trauma, and violence that can result from a single disruption in an ecosystem. Placed on the pathway to City Hall, Attrition symbolically engages with New York City’s heart of policy-making, bringing to light the history of the bison’s survival. This event is free and open to the public. RSVP: https://lnkd.in/eW9HmQnX

Slow Motion featured artist Omar Tate’s “Blue,” is a sixteen-month residency that consists of an evolving dinner menu that testifies to the various reinterpretations of haint blue that emerge at Grounds For Sculpture and its broader environs. Tate collaborated with Grounds For Sculpture’s horticultural team to grow a “hoodoo-inspired garden”—a living sculpture with plants selected by Tate in connection to his theme. Through this multidimensional practice, Blue reflects on the role of sound, taste, sight, and smell in memory-work, forging a monument that honors the multiple roots that constitute Black history and experience. “Blue” is on view in Slow Motion, an indoor and outdoor art exhibition that reimagines the material possibilities of public memory. Curated by Patricia K. for Monument Lab at Grounds For Sculpture.

Slow Motion featured artist Ana Teresa Fernández’s “SHHH” is a projection of the future. The six-foot tall text monument derives inspiration from “shhh”, at once an onomatopoeic word and a universal sound, and plays with the term’s multiple possibilities through its material and performative contours. By materializing the sound of silence at a monumental scale, SHHH grieves a future in which the extinction of cultural and biological diversity is marked by eerie quiet. The monument, as text, requests silence and the mirrored surface commands us to reflect on our collective and individual actions while listening deeply to others. SHHH by Ana Teresa Fernández is on view at Grounds For Sculpture through September 2025.

Monument Lab Re:Generation supports a 2024 cohort of ten teams working to create new or to expand existing public art, public history, or public humanities projects. As a central part of Monument Lab’s commitment to expanding the American commemorative landscape, Re:Generation emphasizes the selection of projects with creative representation and interpretation of erased, suppressed, or threatened stories and histories, particularly in states which have passed legislation limiting the teaching of accurate and diverse American history. 📍The Monument Lab Re:Generation 2024 project sites: 🔵Memphis, Tennessee – Calvary Episcopal Church 🟢St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana – The Descendants Project 🟠Laramie, Wyoming – High Iron 🟡Memphis, Tennessee – Klondike Community Remembrance Project 🟤Baton Rouge, Louisiana – Mapping Trans Joy 🟣Tacoma, Washington – Melting ICE ⚪️Miami, Florida – The Miami AIDS Memorials Project 🔵Mobile, Alabama – Mobile County Training School Heritage Space and Archives 🟢St. Simons Island, Georgia – Reclaiming Ebo Landing 🟠Minneapolis, Minnesota – You Betcha! Farmer-Labor Solidarity is Possible Major support for Re:Generation is provided by the Mellon Foundation.