Art Remediating Campus Histories

The official project originated in 2019 as a recommendation by the Telling Bryn Mawr Histories Working Group. The idea then garnered support from students, including a reference in 2020 strike demands, and from a variety of campus stakeholders. The President’s Office began initial exploratory work on the ARCH Project in January 2021, in partnership with Monument Lab. This resulted in fuller activities during the 2021–22 academic year, a part of a five-year process, with paid student researchers working on an intensive community engagement process around the same question the interested artists also were asked to answer: “What stories are missing from Bryn Mawr College?” 

Deeper context includes the work of “Black at Bryn Mawr” which was a major point of inspiration for the ARCH Project. Black at Bryn Mawr is a collaborative project started by Bryn Mawr students Emma Kioko '15 and Grace Pusey '15 in the Fall of 2014 and aided by the guidance and support of former postdoctoral fellow Dr. Monica Mercado. 

Beyond the ARCH Project, and over the past ten years, progress toward creating a more inclusive campus community has been forged through activism and dialogue. Rooted in this inspiration and collaboration, the College prioritized six broad areas for action to address institutional racism and other forms of systematic disparity, and to advance inclusion, equity, and access. Highlights of changes and new initiatives include:  

• Increasing support and services for students 

• Revising faculty hiring practices to build a more diverse faculty 

• Enacting equity in staff policies and increasing recognition of staff contributions 

• Engaging and acknowledging racism and bias in the College’s past and present 

• Identifying structural racism and disparities across the College with help from outside experts, and pursuing change in college and departmental policies and practices 

• Providing education to faculty, staff, and students on racism and other forms of systemic bias 

The ARCH Project is one of several projects aimed at illuminating untold histories at Bryn Mawr College, such as the Perry House Oral History Project and “Who Built Bryn Mawr,” an ongoing project that supports research into a wide range of students, staff, and faculty of the College that helped make Bryn Mawr what it is today. 

Bryn Mawr College conducted an open call for artist ideas in 2022, focused around a central question: “What stories are missing from Bryn Mawr College?” The resulting five finalists (which included four artists and one artist team) were selected from 110 applications submitted from 22 states and 9 countries. In consultation with an artist advisory committee composed of students, staff, faculty, and alums, they were chosen based on the quality of their artistry, their understanding of the ARCH project themes, and an interest in engaging with the Bryn Mawr community. Each received an honorarium to produce a full proposal and present it to the Bryn Mawr community for feedback and comments. Nekisha Durrett was the selected artist. The other finalists were Sharon Hayes and Michelle Lopez, Amanda King, Risa Puno, and Jean Shin. 

During the 2021-2022 academic year, Bryn Mawr College hired a cohort of paid student researchers to work with Monument Lab to extend the research question to the campus community. This process utilized Monument Lab’s practiced paper engagement form methodology for participatory research projects and adapted it with Bryn Mawr partners to fit the scope of their inquiry. During an Engagement Week in February 2022, the student research cohort facilitated on-campus events in which BMC’s students, staff, faculty, and alums were invited to respond to the research question through paper engagement forms that asked respondents to map the campus according to their own perspectives and experiences. Respondents could draw, sketch, and/or describe their maps.  

After the Engagement Week events, with the assistance of Bryn Mawr College’s Library and Monument Lab, the student research cohort digitally transcribed and coded the forms. This meant delineating unique features identified and modes of storytelling employed by respondents through this mapping and synthesizing insights gleaned from each form.  

The pavers are made from a combination of new and recycled ceramic materials, yielding a building-grade product that meets ASTM C216 severe weather and other quality standards. The names on the engraved pavers are glazed with soil sourced from the College’s historic Perry Garden, the site of its former Perry House, the College’s first affinity housing and cultural center for Black and Brown students.  

The artist worked with the College’s Special Collections staff and student researchers to locate names from a variety of sources including time cards, census records, and other primary materials. 

248 names of Black staff members are included in the artwork. Their service at the College ranges from approximately 1900-1940, as confirmed through US Census data and sources from the College’s archives.  

This artwork draws inspiration and focuses on Black staff members who were employed as live-in domestic servants, maids, porters, and other personal support staff roles at a time when most Black students were systematically denied admission or steered away from attendance based on race. Their work was critical to building and operating the College, particularly in its early decades, but whose contributions have been historically unrecognized.  

The ARCH Project finalists were asked to propose a location, based on a cumulative report of campus research including paper engagement forms BMC community participants used to share their own experiences of the campus. Nekisha Durrett’s proposal sited her artwork in the Cloisters behind the Old Library.  

In total, the pathways correspond to the approximate distance (.9 miles) that Bryn Mawr College’s first Black graduate, Enid Cook (1931), would have walked from her off-campus apartment to the heart of campus.  

• The knot design is about 37.5m x 16m (123ft x 52.5ft) 
• Each strand of the knot has 6 braids that are 11” wide 
• 9,183 Pavers in Cloisters 
• 3,005 Pavers in Breadcrumb 
• The pavers were made in North Carolina at Taylor Clay Products, Inc and are comprised of 70% recycled content 
• The glaze inscribed in the names includes soil collected from the former Perry House site
• One paver is a memorial paver dedicated to Durrett’s late mother, Georgetta B. Durrett (1945-2024); the design is derived from an early abstract drawing by her mother, who passed away just before the artwork was installed

We want to hear from you. The College seeks to build on their own research in their archives to learn more about those named in the artwork. If you are a family member or may have further information about any of these individuals, please contact the Office of Communications at Communications@brynmawr.edu.   

The College seeks to build on their own research in their archives to learn more about those who were staffers at the college especially during its early years.  If you are a family member or may have further information about any of these individuals, please contact the Office of Communications at Communications@brynmawr.edu.