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Preparations for a June 2020 march on Cary Street (Photo by Regina H. Boone courtesy The Branch Museum of Architecture and Design)
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Photo by Sandra Sellars courtesy The Branch Museum of Architecture and Design
Monument Avenue might be mistaken for just another tree-lined road in the city of Richmond ever since the removal of Confederate statues, but at The Branch Museum of Architecture and Design, evidence of the social-justice protests of 2020 lives on.
The exhibition “(Re)Framing Protest: Design and Hope” features work by Richmond Free Press photojournalists Regina H. Boone and Sandra Sellars. Both photographers captured visual records of social unrest as a response to collective trauma, systemic racism and the murder of George Floyd, the African American man whose murder while in police custody sparked 2020’s protests.
The exhibition focuses on reimaging Monument Avenue itself as a welcoming place by including images that display moments of art, design and creative forms of activism during the 2020 protests.
The Branch Museum’s executive director, Sharon Aponte, says that she and other museum staff began talking with Boone and Sellars in September 2021 about the scope of the show and the narrative the images would tell.
The long gallery at the entrance to the exhibit features large-scale images showing people proudly holding signs demanding justice and acknowledgement along the avenue. Visitors can read about the relationship between design, protest, symbols and photojournalism on text panels alongside relevant pictures. A short video that features Richmond Free Press co-founder Jean Patterson Boone talking about the newspaper and its role in documenting history plays in a room to the right of the gallery.
The main gallery focuses on healing and celebration, with dynamic photographs of people dancing, playing drums and protesting through performance. Other images show the projection of the faces of victims of racism onto the Robert E. Lee monument. Together, the pictures look to share the power and beauty of the community. Stacked cubes with pictures on each side at the center of the room create a pyramid.
“The idea behind this is a combination of all of these images that were monumental, and it gives you this idea of a monument,” says Tarin Jones, the museum’s programs and exhibition manager.
Seating is available as a place for processing emotions or ideas brought on by the images, and thoughts can be shared on panels of plywood at the back of the gallery.
“We wanted it to be experimental and participatory, since it’s such a community-based exhibit,” Jones says. He and the curatorial team thought of putting plywood that was often seen in the images of boarded-up buildings at the back wall for people to share what they saw.
“[It’s] kind of re-creating that form of activism where you’re putting things up on the wall and speaking your mind,” Jones says.
Through the selection of images and participatory elements at the exhibit, guests are able to learn, process and heal. The compelling photographs by Boone and Sellars provide a perspective many may not have seen.
“My hope is that people who weren’t actually there can see that there was something going on there other than the negatives of vandalism, looting and a lot of the other negative things that people hear about,” Sellars says.
The photos show a community reimagining a space into something they can call their own.
“The creative voices, the musicians, the artists, all these different people who are doing these amazing things trying to push for justice, change and peace,” Boone says.
“(Re)Framing Protest: Design and Hope,” which features work by photojournalists Regina H. Boone and Sandra Sellars, is at The Branch Museum of Architecture and Design through Sept. 11.
