Archive for June, 2010
Lots to Say About Memorials?
Vietnam Veterans Memorial by Maya Lin, completed 1982, Washington, DC
This fall I’m starting a Memorials Discussion Group at the University of Delaware.
We’ll get together regularly to share ideas about the various aspects of memorials. All types of commemorative structures and practices are possible subjects- sculpture, mural paintings, mosaics, quilts, parades, reading of names or statements, building plaques, photographs, and more.
So far I know we’ll have some graduate students and faculty members from the history and art history departments participating in the discussions. But we want more folks to join us to keep the conversations rich and interesting.
Sociologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, cultural geographers, conservators, artists, and everyone else who works (or has a strong interest) in memorial culture is welcome to join the group.
Meetings will be informal (no readings required!) and held in the University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware area.
If you’re in the Newark, DE area and love to talk about memorials, send me a note via the comments section.
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June 15th- Anniversary of the Duluth Lynchings & 2010 Remembrance Events
This weekend Duluth, Minnesota concludes the 2010 remembrance events to honor the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial.
This multicultural commemoration focuses on the 1920 lynchings and highlights other local struggles against racial injustice.
June 12- Film screening of Older Than America with discussion. The film is about how the Indian boarding schools. For information on the film, see http://www.olderthanamerica.com.
June 14- Memorial service at grave sites of Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie at Park Hill Cemetery.
June 15- Community gathers at Duluth jail and marches to the memorial.
June 15- Observance ceremony with speaker Susana Pelayo- Woodward, UMD Office of Cultural Diversity at the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial, 1st Street & 2nd Ave East.
Day of Remembrance observance with keynote speaker.
Events close with a candlelight vigil.
See the events section on Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial website for detailed information, http://www.claytonjacksonmcghie.org/Events.
PHOTOS ANYONE?: I need high resolution images of the memorial wall (especially the quotes) and the various ceremonies. The photos will be used for the blog, flickr memorial group, PowerPoint presentations, and other educational outreach purposes. If you attend the event and have photographs to share, please let me know by sending a comment or upload images to the group: American Lynching Memorials on flickr, http://www.flickr.com/groups/lynching_memorials/pool/.
I appreciate your assistance in helping to raise awareness of lynching memorials in the U.S.
Can Wikipedia Save Public Art?
LOVE, sculpture, Robert Indiana, 1976, Center City, Philadelphia. Photo by author, 2010.
If you’re interested in what people are doing to increase awareness about and preserve public art, read on.
Jennifer Geigel Mikulay, an art history professor at Indiana University, Purdue and Richard S. McCoy, a conservator at Indianapolis Museum of Art started the project Wikipedia Saves Public Art. Their students are writing articles about local Indianapolis public art and posting them on the crowd-sourced encyclopedia. Mikulay and McCoy hope that the project will inspire people across the world to notice and document public art.
To find out more about this project, check out:
“Scholars Use Wikipedia to Save Public Art from the Dustbin of History” by Mary Helen Miller, The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 4, 2010.
http://chronicle.com/article/Scholars-Use-Wikipedia-to-Save/64929/
“Wikipedia Saves Public Art: An interview with Richard McCoy and Jennifer Geigel Mikulay” by D. Cull, e-conservation magazine, No. 14 (2010) pp. 19-27.
http://www.e-conservationline.com/content/view/895
Facebook page: Wikipedia Saves Public Art
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