FORWARD: Issue #7: Monuments & Memorials
Toolkit
A creative Dream Job description, plus resources for making connections across sectors and working creatively in the monuments and memorials sector
01
San Francisco Monuments and Memorials Advisory Committee Final Report
San Francisco Human Rights Commission, Arts Commission, and Recreation and Parks Department
In June 2020, three sculptures were taken down by demonstrators in Golden Gate Park. In response, Mayor London Breed directed the above commissions to work with the community and amend the City’s guidelines around monuments and memorials so that public artworks reflect the values of the city. The resulting Monuments and Memorials Advisory Committee (MMAC) was composed of community leaders charged with examining the guidelines used to evaluate the 98 monuments and memorials in the Civic Art Collection, which is managed by the Arts Commission (SFAC). Forecast was selected to facilitate MMAC meetings and opportunities for community comment, refine existing policy and guidelines for monuments and memorials, and develop recommendations for SFAC.
02
The Relic Report: An Unofficial Municipal Study of SF’s Monuments
New Monuments Taskforce
With the Relic Report, NMTF set out to re-examine our civic monuments and the systematic themes they uphold. In doing so, the report spurred a public conversation, asking San Francisco Bay Area residents to reflect on their relationship to monumental relics and what a new wave of monuments could and should look like.
03
Advancing Policy for Monuments and Memorials
Insights from the Field: Driving for Equitable Change in Public Art, Forecast Public Art
Forecast facilitated San Francisco's Monuments and Memorials Advisory Committee's review of its collection from a stance of racial equity. Hear about the process from Mary Chou, director of Public Art and Collections, San Francisco Arts Commission.
04
Dream Job—Cultural Vibe Rizzard
Sen Mendez
A self-taught artist working primarily in printmaking, painting, and social practice, Mendez offers this Dream Job based on the prompt to suggest a model for a creative who is working to support contemporary monuments and memorials: How could an artist improve the work being done as we collectively confront difficult and painful histories?
Mendez wanted to create a job listing that was fun, exciting, and most of all innovative toward an accessible and radical future within the arts and culture sector. They hope that this listing instills hope for a safer future for everyone.
A popular recurring section, FORWARD's Dream Job is a space where we ask creatives and leaders embedded in cross-sector work to propose a creative job that doesn't exist—but should.
08
Public Memory and Our Passing World
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation April 10, 2024
Public memory is a community’s shared sense of events and histories. Monuments and commemorations express public memory and what we consider as part of our collective past. What can robust and just public memory work do to empower us to preserve and remember what is being lost to a changing environment and to galvanize us to move forward with courage and a spirit of innovation for the world we are creating?
Mellon Foundation President Elizabeth Alexander and artist and designer Maya Lin held a discussion that drew on the insights of American commemorative history and the Mellon Monuments Project, as they explored the power of the arts and public memory in a time of climate change.
Illustration: Ibrahim Rayintakath for Mellon Foundation.
09
Protecting Our Cultural Heritage
Grants, National Endowment for the Humanities
As a result of armed conflict, war, looting, natural disasters, economic development, poor management, and tourism, humanity’s cultural legacy is under increasing duress. In recognition of this multifaceted problem, NEH encourages projects that conduct research and develop resources for the study, documentation, and presentation of imperiled cultural heritage materials.
11
The Inclusive Historian's Handbook
The American Association for State and Local History and the National Council on Public History
Memorials and monuments punctuate our lives. Many of us are taught to revere them early on—in town squares, at museums, throughout our national parks, and everywhere in between. Love, hate, fear, faith, determination, and deception all inhere in our nation’s commemorative landscape. But what do we really know about these silent sentinels?
Photo: “A Quest for Parity: The Octavius V. Catto Memorial.” Photo by Mark Jason Dominus / Wikimedia Commons.
12
The Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery Initiative
Harvard University
Addressing systemic inequities by developing and advancing visible, lasting, and effective action grounded in Harvard’s educational mission and guided by the recommendations and findings of the Presidential Committee on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery. Actions include a possible memorial and a Reparative Partnership Grant Program.
Photo: Harvard gate and veritas shield. Photo by klndonnelly / flickr / CC by 2.0.
14
Public Art Review public policy content
Forecast Public Art A curated selection from Forecast's legacy print magazine.
Artists and other cultural professionals are going beyond simply planning and creating art for municipal public art plans. They're contributing to the direction of government at many levels.
Photo: People emerge from the NoHo Arts District metro station on L.A.'s red line. Photo by Chris Yarzab / flickr / CC license.
17
CHART Santa Fe (Culture, History, Art, Reconciliation and Truth)
Artful Life, LLC
The goal of the CHART project is to engage the diverse citizenry of Santa Fe, New Mexico, in activities that will solicit their perspectives, and to foster a mutual understanding of shared values. Though sparked by controversies about monuments and statues, the project is much broader in scope and purpose. The City of Santa Fe Governing Body decided on a grassroots process that invites and facilitates community member–to–community member dialogue.
18
Symbols of Resistance
Freedom Archives
Symbols of Resistance looks at the history of the Chican@ Movement as it emerges in the 1970s with a focus on events in Colorado and Northern New Mexico. The documentary explores the disputes over land, the student movement, and community struggles against police repression.
20
National Monument Audit
Monument Lab, in partnership with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
This audit allows us to better understand the dynamics and trends that have shaped our monument landscape, to pose questions about common knowledge regarding monuments, and to debunk falsehoods and misperceptions within public memory.
Illustration: cover, Monument Lab National Monument Audit.
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FORWARD: Issue #7
Monuments & Memorials
© COPYRIGHT 2024 - FORECAST PUBLIC ART ISSN 2768-4113