NEWS RELEASE: Mellon Foundation Short Film Previews Beyond Granite Initiative Led by Trust for the National Mall with NCPS and NPS Partners
MELLON FOUNDATION SHORT FILM PREVIEWS BEYOND GRANITE INITIATIVE LED BY TRUST FOR THE NATIONAL MALL WITH NCPC AND NPS PARTNERS
Trust for National Mall, Monument Lab and Justice & Sustainability Associates highlight future work in commemoration on the Mall in new video
For Immediate Release
October 19, 2022
Media Contacts:
Julie Moore 202-297-6106
jmoore@nationalmall.org
Molly Flores
mflores@linksp.com
WASHINGTON (October 19, 2022) — In 2023, the Trust for the National Mall will lead the implementation of Beyond Granite, a dynamic new set of commemorative works, performances, and installations designed to create a more inclusive, equitable, and representative process for commemoration on the National Mall – and beyond. This project, a partnership among the Trust, the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) and the National Park Service (NPS), is funded by The Mellon Foundation’s Monuments Project.
In celebration of National Arts and Humanities Month, the Mellon Foundation released a seven-minute film, titled Beyond Granite: The Future of the Public Square, offering an exclusive preview of the inception, design, and future of this innovative initiative. The video surveys many of the stories commemorated on the National Mall while exploring what might be missing or underrepresented across this iconic space and throughout the capital’s commemorative landscapes. The video also features in-depth commentary from the Trust for the National Mall along with Beyond Granite project contributors Justice & Sustainability Associates, and Monument Lab.
In the coming months, the Trust for the National Mall, in partnership with the NCPC, NPS, and through the thoughtful curation and public outreach of Monument Lab, and Justice & Sustainability Associates, will facilitate the selection and execution of temporary commemorative installations and programs, created by artists from around the country, on and around the National Mall, in 2023.
“It is a historically rare privilege to have an opportunity to enrich the commemorative landscape of the National Mall. It’s one that we embrace with tremendous excitement, and, more importantly, with a deep sense of purpose, pride, and patriotism,” said Teresa Durkin, Executive Vice President, Trust for the National Mall. “In unexpected and profoundly meaningful ways, Beyond Granite will create the space to tell a fuller story of our nation’s shared history.”
Philadelphia-based Monument Lab, a public art and history studio renowned for its immersive work in more than a dozen US cities, and a leader in the larger movement of broadening the dialogue about commemoration, is guiding the creative process for identifying and curating the visionary artists, installations and sites for Beyond Granite’s inaugural exhibition. Co-curators of the exhibition, Dr. Paul Farber and Pulitzer Prize winner Dr. Salamishah Tillet, are working with the Trust for the National Mall to assemble an advisory group of artists, activists, scholars, historians, curators, and community leaders to review artist proposals to help determine the commemorative works for the Beyond Granite initiative. The full artist roster and programmatic details will be announced later this year.
In the video, Beyond Granite co-curators shared a historical moment to frame the kind of power that ephemeral performance and commemoration can create on the National Mall:
“The National Mall is our country’s most memorable symbol of American democracy and site of our shared struggle for freedom,” shared Dr. Salamishah Tillet, Rutgers professor of Africana Studies and the co-curator of Beyond Granite’s inaugural exhibition. “Because of this rich legacy, it is an honor to engage public art as a way to remind of its complex past, and also tell new stories of our nation’s history and present.”
“We are grateful and inspired to be collaborating with the Trust for the National Mall for Beyond Granite's inaugural exhibition. What a profound opportunity to summon artists and public participants to the National Mall for meaningful conversations about our nation’s public memory and our evolving monument landscape.” said Dr. Paul Farber, co-curator of Beyond Granite’s inaugural exhibition and Director of Monument Lab.
DC-based Justice & Sustainability Associates, experts in delivering effective civic and community engagement in complex environments, is engaging local residents, leaders, and subject matter experts to explore the ways they might want and expect Beyond Granite to be incorporated into their communities across the District, as well as connecting with national audiences to explore responses and ideas about new approaches to commemoration.
For more information on Beyond Granite, visit: https://www.beyondgranite.org/. To watch Beyond Granite: The Future of the Public Square and read the blog visit: https://mellon.org/shared-experiences-blog/beyond-granite/.
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ABOUT THE TRUST FOR THE NATIONAL MALL: As the leading nonprofit, nonpartisan philanthropic partner of the National Park Service dedicated to restoring, preserving, and enriching the National Mall, the Trust brings expertise, private funding, and in-kind support to time-sensitive restoration and sustainability projects. The Trust also mobilizes a volunteer operation to provide educational opportunities to ensure that the National Mall endures and evolves as a vibrant civic stage for all. With over 36 million annual visits, the National Mall’s aging infrastructure and outdated visitor amenities are in urgent need of repair and improvement as we prepare for America’s 250th anniversary in 2026. The Trust is also the philanthropic partner of President’s Park, adjacent to the National Mall. To learn more and to support our mission visit www.nationalmall.org | information@nationalmall.org | @thenationalmall
ABOUT THE NATIONAL CAPITAL PLANNING COMMISSION: The National Capital Planning Commission is the federal government’s central planning agency in Washington, DC and surrounding counties of Maryland and Virginia. The Commission provides overall guidance for federal land and buildings in the region. It also reviews the design of federal projects and memorials, oversees long-range planning for future development, and monitors capital investment by federal agencies. NCPC’s past studies and initiatives on commemorative needs in the nation’s capital are available online at https://www.ncpc.gov/topics/commemoration/.
ABOUT NATIONAL MALL AND MEMORIAL PARKS: The National Park Service’s National Mall and Memorial Parks preserves, protects, and interprets the symbolic and monumental civic spaces and commemorative works in the center of the Nation’s Capital that honor American ideals and values, distinguished public figures, and military and civilian sacrifices and contributions. On the National Mall these sites include the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Thomas Jefferson Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, World War II Memorial, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. National Mall and Memorial Parks also serves as a public park and open space for active civic and cultural engagement, recreation, and public enjoyment.
ABOUT MONUMENT LAB: Monument Lab is a nonprofit public art and history studio based in Philadelphia. Monument Lab works with artists, students, educators, activists, municipal agencies, and cultural institutions on participatory approaches to public engagement and collective memory. Founded in 2012, Monument Lab cultivates and facilitates critical conversations around the past, present, and future of monuments. As a studio and curatorial team, Monument Lab collaborates to make generational change in the ways art and history live in public. Its approaches include producing citywide art exhibitions, site-specific commissions, and participatory research initiatives. Monument Lab aims to inform the processes of public art, as well as the permanent collections of cities, museums, libraries, and open data repositories. Through exhibitions, research programs, editorial platforms, and fellowships, it has connected with hundreds of thousands of people in person and millions online. Monument Lab critically engages our inherited symbols in order to unearth the next generation of monuments that elevate stories of artists, educators, and grassroots coalitions. Connect with Monument Lab at www.monumentlab.com or on Linkedin, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
ABOUT JUSTICE & SUSTAINABILITY ASSOCIATES: Justice & Sustainability Associates specializes in designing and implementing large and small group multi-stakeholder agenda setting and decision-making processes. JSA focuses on using alternative dispute and conflict resolution techniques (fact-finding, facilitation, mediation, negotiation, consensus building, etc.). Its niche is to use these techniques in public policy, civic engagement and organizational development processes related to achieving sustainable community development, environmental justice and smart growth. JSA has excelled in delivering measurable civic engagement in simple and complex urban development projects. In the Washington metropolitan region and throughout the U.S., we have successfully helped implement numerous community visioning, waterfront, community redevelopment and transportation projects.