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Monument Lab

Monument Lab is a national public art and history project based in Philadelphia. Founded by Paul M. Farber and Ken Lum, it has produced two major exhibitions, and now operates a number of national programs generating and examining research and discourse around monuments and art in public space.

Conception
In 2012, Professors Ken Lum and Paul Farber met while teaching at the University of Pennsylvania (Lum in the Fine Arts department and Farber in Urban Studies). Through conversations the two found they were each using their courses to explore similar questions regarding the role monuments and public artworks play in the dynamics of representation in public spaces. Lum was particular interested in the histories not currently reflected by the city’s monumental landscape, what he called the ‘negative history’ of Philadelphia ;” as Lum summarized, ““We weren’t concerned about who’s speaking so much as who’s being ignored .” This line of questioning would eventually be formalized into a research question: “what is an appropriate monument for the current city of Philadelphia?” - a question which became the focal point of their “Discovery Phase” exhibition in 2015 and eventually their city-wide exhibition in 2017.

2015 Discovery Phase
In partnership with the Penn Center for Urban Research and with a 2014 Pew Center for Arts and Heritage grant, Monument Lab launched a three-week exhibition in the Philadelphia City Hall Courtyard. This included a temporary monument from artist Terry Atkins, speculative monument proposals from four artists, a series of public lectures and discussions, and a learning “lab” where audiences were able to propose their own “appropriate monuments” as answers to the research question. Over 35,000 people engaged with the exhibition, submitting 400 proposals at the lab location.

Featured Artworks
Terry Adkins, Prototype Monument for Center Square

Speculative Monument Proposals
Kara Crombie, SAMPLE PHILLY

Kaitlin Pomerantz, “We’re Getting There”

Alexander Rosenberg, Imperfect Square

Zoe Strauss, The Walking Purchase Path

2017 Exhibition
With funding from the William Penn Foundation and Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, Monument Lab entered into a collaboration with Mural Arts Philadelphia to expand their initial exploration in 2017. This updated, city-wide exhibition once again asked “What is an appropriate monument for the current city of Philadelphia?” Twenty local and international artists were selected to present prototype monuments in response to the research question, and to the research collected through the 2015 exhibition. The result was twenty “temporary works of public art created in a variety of media including sculpture, performance, projection, sound, and of course, murals,” addressing topics “such as engagement of public space, equality and social justice, refugee and immigrant issues, opioid addiction and recovery, gentrification and land use, indigenous history, recycling and sustainability, youth voice, Philadelphia music, and neighborhood culture ” (PAFA, 2017) “Our goal with the project is a lofty one, but it’s how we rewrite the history of cities, together,” stated Farber; “it’s a project that tries to unearth the next generation of monuments as well as reflect on the monuments we inherited .”

Artworks were installed in ten public parks throughout the city, including including the five William Penn Plan Parks (City Hall, Logan Square, Franklin Square, Rittenhouse Square, and Washington Square) and five parks in the surrounding neighborhoods (Malcolm X Park, Marconi Plaza, Norris Square, Penn Treaty Park, and Vernon Park). At each site passersby were invited to submit their own proposals for monuments, which were scanned and catalogued. The labs were operated by research teams including lab managers, high school fellows, and college students in a “Civic Studio” course taught at the University of Pennsylvania by Paul Farber and Matt Neff.

PAFA served as the “central hub” of the exhibition, displaying information about each of the projects at the ten sites, as well as a slideshow of audience proposals. Additionally, a Public Field Research Office was operated at the Barnes Museum.

4445 public proposals were collected, transcribed, and analysed, an effort led by Monument Lab Research Director Laurie Allen, the director of digital scholarship at Penn Libraries. Aside from being displayed at PAFA, these proposals are publicly available through Open Data Philly and the Monument Lab Website. The data team also released a summary of their findings in their Report to the City. The Report was presented to Mayor James Kenney and the city commissioners, and made available at each branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Featured Artworks
Tania Bruguera, Monument to New Immigrants

Mel Chin, Two Me

Kara Crombie, Sample Philly

Tyree Guyton, THE TIMES

Hanks Haacke, Digging (Archaeology of the Vacant Lot)

David Hartt, for everyone a garden VIII

Sharon Hayes, If They Should Ask

King Britt and Joshua Mays, Dreams, Diaspora, and Destiny

Klip Collective, passage :: migration

Duane Linklater, In Perpetuity

Emeka Ogboh featuring Ursula Rucker, Logan Squared: Ode to Philly

Karyn Olivier, The Battle Is Joined

Michelle Angela Ortiz, Seguimos Caminando (We Keep Walking)

Kaitlin Pomerantz, On the Threshold (Salvaged Stoops, Philadelphia)

RAIR–Recycled Artist in Residency, Plainsight is 20/20

Alexander Rosenberg, The Built/Unbuilt Square

Jamel Shabazz, Love Is the Message

Hank Willis Thomas, All Power to All People

Shira Walinsky and Southeast by Southeast, Free Speech

Marisa Williamson, Sweet Chariot: The Long Journey to Freedom Through Time

Recognitions


 * Americans for the Arts’ 2018 Public Art Network Year in Review, top 50 outstanding public art projects from across the country (All Power to All People, The Battle Is Joined, If They Should Ask, On the Threshold )
 * Preservation Alliance (On the Threshold,Sweet Chariot )

CURRENT PROJECTS
At present Monument Lab is involved in a number of diverse projects within Philadelphia and across the United States, engaging artists, policy makers and the greater public in explorations of public art, history, and memory. Through these projects Monument Lab operates as an independent creative research studio, both generating and supporting research and the creation of new knowledge in its field.

In the summer of 2018, Monument Lab received a $50,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation as part of a collaboration with Venturi Labs and partners at PennDesign, Penn Libraries, and the Sachs Program for Arts Innovation. Together, this team is working on Civic Portal, where they seek to “imagine and prototype an app that uses augmented reality as an accessible means to interact with conceptual designs for public monuments ” (Brandon Baker, 2018).

Monument Lab has also received a grant from the Surdna Foundation, with which it has launched Remediate in partnership with Slought, a program which supports artists and activists across the nation whose projects “address long term inequities in monument building and propose new creative approaches to public art and history .”

Artistic Director Paul Farber also hosts a podcast series, in which he speaks to “artists, activists, and historians about the monuments we have inherited from the past and the people and movements who are critically engaging them now .” Guests include Hank Willis Thomas, Kirk Savage, and Stephanie Syjuco.