Research and Prep for ARCH Project Continues in Advance of Fall Installation
Progress continues in the planning for Don't Forget to Remember (Me), a monument by artist Nekisha Durrett addressing the legacy of exclusionary practices at the College that will be placed in the Cloisters at the center of Old Library.
The project will use custom pavers to create pathways in the Cloisters’ courtyard which, when seen from above, create a woven path that “takes the shape of a knot that cannot be undone, symbolizing interconnectivity, and making visual that Bryn Mawr is reexamining its history to tell all of its stories.” Engraved pavers will include the names of Black staff whose work was critical to building and operating the College, particularly in its early decades, but whose contributions were historically unrecognized.
Student interns Annalise Ashman ’24 and Katelyn Kim ’26 have been doing archival research on the individuals whose names will be etched into the pavers and Durrett is moving along with designing the elements of the project.
On Feb. 23, Ashman, Kim, and others from Bryn Mawr and our partner organization Monument Lab visited one of Durrett's previous works with the artist and visited her studio in Washington, D.C.
Initial construction began this spring. It’s estimated that upwards of 30,000 pavers will be needed for the project.
Durrett's monument is the centerpiece of a collaboration between Bryn Mawr and Monument Lab known as The ARCH (Art Remediating Campus Histories) Project.
Bryn Mawr College’s ARCH Project (Art Remediating College Histories), in partnership with Monument Lab, is a multi-year collaboration to design a process and commission a campus public artwork that responds to the legacy of exclusionary practices at the College. This vital work builds on previous and ongoing College-supported efforts by students, staff, alumni, and faculty to reveal and repair harm, ensuring a reckoning with Bryn Mawr College’s history and a clear-sighted look at the way to a future of inclusion and reconciliation.