The ARCH (Art Remediating College Histories) Project
About the Project
Bryn Mawr College’s ARCH Project (Art Remediating Campus Histories), in partnership with Monument Lab, is a multi-year collaboration with students, staff, faculty, and alums to design a thoughtful process for commissioning a lasting 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, reckon with Bryn Mawr College’s history, and create a forward-focused path toward inclusion and repair.
Altogether, Bryn Mawr College’s ARCH Project will include over five years of engagement, reflection, and campus monument-making and memorialization.
On May 4, 2023, it was announced that Bryn Mawr College selected Nekisha Durrett to create a monument addressing a legacy of exclusionary practices at the College and enabling the campus community to respond to the question, What stories are missing from Bryn Mawr College?
Durrett's campus monument, titled Don't Forget to Remember (Me), will be placed in the Cloisters at the center of Old Library and contribute to a broader effort of historical reckoning.
The College selected Durrett following a process that included engaged research on campus with students, staff, faculty, and alums and an open call for artists. Five finalist proposals were presented to campus audiences in spring 2023.
The monument's installation is scheduled to be complete by spring 2025, when the entire College community will be invited to an unveiling event.
An Interview with the Artist
The Artist
Durrett is the 2022 Howard University Social Justice Consortium’s (SJC) Artist in Residence Fellow. From large freestanding sculptures to intimate gallery installations, her work uses unexpected materials to make historical connections and connotations that places and materials embody but are overlooked in our day-to-day lives.
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.