When Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney’s Monument Avenue Commission submitted its recommendations for the future of the city’s Confederate statues, it noted a program initiated by the VCUarts mObstudiO and Storefront for Community Design. The community partners received a $30,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to imagine possibilities for the 5.4-mile street, and are currently hosting an international competition, Monument Avenue: General Demotion/General Devotion, to generate ideas from architects, planners, designers, independent artists and individuals.
Participants are challenged to consider Monument Avenue’s role as a historic boulevard; its viability as an interurban connector; its presence as Richmond evolves into a diverse and progressive city; and its significance in the current debate about public Confederate monuments. Judges will select 20 finalists, whose proposals will be printed and displayed at the Valentine in an exhibition opening Feb. 14, 2019. A concurrent youth competition will invite students in the Richmond region to create proposals for the street’s next monument, with winning entries displayed in a special exhibition at the Branch Museum of Architecture and Design.
“Design has a unique role to play in the consideration and reconsideration of our urban landscape,” says Camden Whitehead, associate professor of interior design and mOb faculty member. “Design and architecture have the capacity to introduce nuance and subtlety into a complex public dialogue that often reverts to polarization. One of the responsibilities of an urban university like VCU is to raise these difficult issues and lead a constructive, inclusive discussion about how our environment and our art express our values and beliefs.”
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