Art and Activism Inaugural Event

“Designing the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers at the University of Virginia”

The University of Virginia—designed by Thomas Jefferson and now recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site—was built and maintained by 4000 or more enslaved men, women, and children. UVA’s powerful new Memorial to Enslaved Laborers honors the lives, labors, and resistance of the enslaved people who lived and worked at UVA between 1817 and 1865.

The Institute’s inaugual Art and Activism event was formatted as an interview with members of the memorial’s design team, explored the creation of the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers. “I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation,” reported Kristin Hass, associate professor of American culture who served as the interviewer. ”I was flooded with emails—even stopped by people on the street—expressing excitement about the conversation and praise for the format and the framing of the event.”

This virtual event took place in February. It is the first in a series of annual Art and Activism lectures as part of High Stakes Art, a multi-year project designed to enhance exhibitions and programming at the Institute for the Humanities Gallery and made possible by a generous grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. View the archived event here: https:// myumi.ch/QA93e

This project was supported by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS

ERIC HÖWELER, AIA, LEED AP, is associate professor in architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and a co-founding principal of Höweler + Yoon Architecture LLP, a research-driven, multidisciplinary design studio working between architecture, art, and media.

ETO OTITIGBE is a polymedia artist whose interdisciplinary practice investigates the intersections of race, power, and technology. He is the director of the Turnbull Townhouse Gallery in New York and assistant professor and head of sculpture at Brooklyn College.

MABEL O. WILSON is the Nancy and George Rupp Professor of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, a professor in African American and African diasporic studies, director of the Institute for Research in African American Studies, and co-director of the Global Africa Lab at Columbia University.

J. MEEJIN YOON, AIA FAAR, is dean of Architecture, Art, Planning at Cornell University and is co-founding principle of Höweler + Yoon Architecture.

KRISTIN HASS is associate professor of American culture and faculty coordinator for the Humanities Collaboratory at the University of Michigan. Her fields of study include visual culture, material culture, museum studies, memory, and 20th-century cultural history.