New York Times: National Mall Commissions 6 Artists for Monument Exhibition
National Mall Commissions 6 Artists for Monument Exhibition
The New York Times’ Zachary Small wrote about Beyond Granite ahead of its official artist roster unveiling on December 7, 2022 and how the national initiative will expand the dialogue in commemoration with new exhibits, performances and art installations on the National Mall in 2023.
“The National Mall in Washington, which hosted the AIDS Memorial Quilt in 1987 and a remembrance for Covid-19 victims last year, will have its green acres transformed into a temporary exhibition next summer that reimagines the role of monuments in the telling of American history.
The exhibition, announced on Wednesday by the Trust for the National Mall, is part of a $4.5 million initiative for new programming at the park that emphasizes equity and inclusivity.”
“[Teresa] Durkin described ‘Pulling Together’ as a pilot arts program for the National Mall, where until recently the trust’s focus has been mostly on restoration and maintenance projects.
‘Our hope is that we will learn all we need to create a sustainable program that the trust would manage,’ Durkin said, ‘so we can continue to help people come and tell their stories.’
Photo by Monument Lab
Beyond Granite, funded by the Mellon Foundation, invites visionary artists to create special commemorative exhibits, performances, and installations on the National Mall and throughout the District of Columbia that will expand the public's imagination and understanding and create a more a more inclusive, equitable, and representative process for commemoration on the National Mall – and beyond.
”Pulling Together,” the inaugural exhibition of Beyond Granite, will feature installations and exhibits or prototype monuments, on the National Mall and in Washington, DC from leading contemporary artists that respond to a central curatorial question: What stories remain untold on the National Mall?
The Trust for the National Mall is honored to be working with the Mellon Foundation and its partners The National Capitol Planning Commission and the National Park Service to bring this new series to life to tell the fuller American story in the commemorative landscape.