Monument Lab: A Citywide Public Art and History Exhibition

Mural Arts Philadelphia

2016
$300,000

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Mel Chin, Two Me, 2017, Philadelphia City Hall. Presented as part of Mural Arts Philadelphia’s Monument Lab. Photo by Steve Weinik.

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Emeka Ogboh featuring Ursula Rucker, Logan Squared: Ode to Philly, 2017, Parkway Central Library. Presented as part of Mural Arts Philadelphia’s Monument Lab. Photo by Steve Weinik.

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Monument Lab, Mural Arts Philadelphia. Photo by Steve Weinik, courtesy of Mural Arts Philadelphia.

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Kara Crombie, Sample Philly. Photo by Steve Weinik, courtesy of Mural Arts Philadelphia.

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Kara Crombie, Sample Philly. Photo by Steve Weinik, courtesy of Mural Arts Philadelphia.

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Mel Chin, Two Me, 2017, Philadelphia City Hall. Presented as part of Mural Arts Philadelphia’s Monument Lab. Photo by Steve Weinik.

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Karyn Oliver, The Battle is Joined, 2017, Vernon Park. Presented as part of Mural Arts Philadelphia’s Monument Lab. Photo by Mike Reali.

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Mel Chin, Two Me, 2017, Philadelphia City Hall. Presented as part of Mural Arts Philadelphia’s Monument Lab. Photo by Steve Weinik.

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Sharon Hayes, If They Should Ask, 2017, Philadelphia City Hall. Presented as part of Mural Arts Philadelphia’s Monument Lab. Photo by Steve Weinik.

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Mel Chin, Two Me, 2017, Philadelphia City Hall. Presented as part of Mural Arts Philadelphia’s Monument Lab. Photo by Steve Weinik.

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Karyn Olivier, The Battle is Joined, 2017, Vernon Park. Presented as part of Mural Arts Philadelphia’s Monument Lab. Photo by Mike Reali.

Philadelphia Mural Arts Program presented a series of five temporary public artworks, created by artists Mel Chin, Emeka Ogboh, Kaitlin Pomerantz, Kara Crombie, and Alexander Rosenberg, exploring notions of monumentality within the civic sphere. The project built on a 2015 Center-supported discovery phase, conceptualized by scholar and curator Paul Farber, artist Ken Lum, and curator A. Will Brown. Mural Arts engaged this creative team to co-produce the exhibition around their ongoing, guiding question: "What is an appropriate monument for the current city of Philadelphia?" On-site "laboratories" designed to solicit the public's visions for appropriate monuments accompanied the artists' installations. These contributions from the community were displayed on screens in the laboratories, as well as in a central gallery space at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for the duration of the project.

Additional unrestricted funds are added to each grant for general operating support.