Windowfront Exhibitions
Reimagining Monuments
June 19 - September 6, 2021
This installation emerged from community activities and conversations that critiqued local monuments. City Club of Eugene recognized that examining the value assumptions about monuments and generating new ideas for improving civic engagement are central to its mission of building community vision. New monuments may be needed for new insights about community life. The Round Table Club members viewed this project as providing a unique opportunity to collaborate in ways that promote shared values, tapping the resources of “town” and “gown” to promote inquiry-based art. The project proposal immediately caught the attention of Malik Lovette, an artist and educator and founder of Let Us Have Vision, committed to helping people explore identity through art. This installation shows how young artists met the challenge of identifying the people and events in their own lives and considering how best to represent them in public spaces.
At the beginning of April, Lovette and Eugene 4J’s BEST afterschool program hosted a series of artist workshops titled “Reimagining Monuments” for Kelly Middle School, Ceasar Chavez and River Road Elementary Schools. In addition, students in Lovette’s afterschool program for middle school students joined in. Each cohort began planning a new generation of monuments for Eugene by doing a quick review of the nature of monuments, using examples from across the US and from local Indigenous people. Then they got acquainted with a few notable Oregonians and historical events, to promote understanding of the many ways people and events can inspire us. And finally, they identified people or events in their own lives whom they view as monument-worthy and designed a monument to celebrate them. Their final work includes both the designs of proposed monuments and artist statements describing the subject and theme of their monumental proposals.
Sponsored by
The City Club of Eugene launched and hosted this project as part of its mission “to build community vision through open inquiry.” Its goal was to engage youth in critical examination of the nature of monument-worthy people and events and the ways they inspire us to civic action. Membership in City Club is open to all.
The Round Table Club of Eugene provided major support as a collaborator in this project. Founded in 1912 for "the social and intellectual enjoyment of its members," the Round Table Club provides a forum in which citizens and members of the University of Oregon share friendship and the opportunity for intellectual growth.
Let Us Have Vision is an organization started by artist Malik Lovette. Its mission is to promote understanding of yourself in the day-by-day process of establishing identity by seeking your passion, working toward your dreams, and discovering your purpose, using the tools of creation and communication to express your vision of the world.