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Opening night of "Monument Avenue: General Demotion/General Devotion" at The Valentine (Photo courtesy Storefront for Community Design)
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Timeline from "Monument Avenue: General Demotion/General Devotion" at The Valentine (Photo courtesy The Valentine)
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Opening night of "Monument Avenue: General Demotion/General Devotion" at The Valentine (Photo courtesy Storefront for Community Design)
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Opening night of "Monument Avenue: General Demotion/General Devotion" at The Valentine (Photo courtesy Storefront for Community Design)
The debate over Richmond’s Confederate statues likely will continue for some time, but the Valentine museum’s collaborative exhibition and competition for reimagining Richmond’s most famous street, “Monument Avenue: General Demotion/General Devotion,” followed a precise timetable.
Hosted by Virginia Commonwealth University’s MoB (Middle of Broad) Studio and the Storefront for Community Design, the competition began in April 2018. The designers received assistance from a $30,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant. The presentation of the notable concepts opened in February and culminates with the Nov. 20 closing reception, during which jurors’ selections and the People’s Choice Award will be revealed.
Nothing will physically change on Monument Avenue as a result, but the displays and the inspired conversation generated such ire among pro-monument advocates that the Monument Avenue Preservation Group on Facebook urged a boycott of The Valentine.
Debates about what, if anything, should occur on the Richmond thoroughfare had been reignited during the summer of 2017 when Mayor Levar Stoney impaneled the Monument Avenue Commission to discuss the future of the city’s Confederate statues. A boisterous Aug. 9, 2017, gathering at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture set the stage for vociferous disagreement. Then came the deadly violence several days later during the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville and removals elsewhere of Confederate-related memorials.
One of the entries suggests lowering monuments into the ground. (Image courtesy The Valentine)
In July 2018, the Monument Avenue Commission issued its 115-page report that recommended placement of explanatory signs at Confederate monuments and commissioning contemporary works to bring further context. The commission also suggested removal of the Jefferson Davis statue pending litigation or changes in state law that the city “may choose to initiate or support.”
A split Richmond City Council in October 2018 rejected a resolution to ask the Virginia General Assembly for power to make decisions about the Confederate statues.
In February, Stoney appointed nine people to an advisory body called the History and Culture Commission. Its work includes “providing direction” on implementing the Monument Avenue Commission’s recommendations and how to memorialize the slave trade in Shockoe Bottom. Leading the new commission is Free Egunfemi, founder of Untold RVA, an organization dedicated to filling in pieces missing from Richmond’s historical narrative. As of early October, the commission was finalizing its bylaws.
“We seek to address the Monument Avenue Commission’s recommendations in many ways,” Egunfemi says, “including but not limited to identifying existing projects that are equitable and creative and worthy of city support.”
