Introduction
Richmond, Virginia is a city filled with murals, from the Richmond Mural Project[1] to the Mending Walls Project.[2] This was not always the case. Historically, public art in Richmond referred to the massive Confederate statues looming over downtown, erected to further the “Lost Cause” narrative. Built decades after the end of the Civil War and during the rise of Jim Crow,[3] they were part of a movement to convince people that the Civil War was “was fought to protect Southern states’ rights, not slavery” that slavery was mutually beneficially, and “The South did not commit treason against the United States.”[4] By portraying Confederate generals as triumphant heroes through massive public artworks, they were able to construct a historical memory contrary to the reality of the goals and actions of the Confederacy.
Public art remains heavily relevant in shaping public historical memory, but public art and who the public is in Richmond has radically changed. Richmond murals started going up in 2012[5] and Confederate statues started going down in 2020.[6] In the past 20 years the student body in my school went from 6% Hispanic to 38% Hispanic.[7] The rise in both our Hispanic student population and the rise of murals makes teaching Chicana Muralism an obvious choice in my art room, particularly Judith F. Baca, a central figure in the history of this genre.[8]
This curriculum will specifically focus on her work Great Wall of Los Angeles, painted in collaboration with hundreds of young people through her organization Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC). Started in the 1970s, stretching half a mile along the flood wall of the Los Angeles River, the mural depicts the history of Los Angeles from prehistory to present.[9] Her art serves to not only allow my students to see themselves represented in art history, but her work provides context for thinking about Richmond’s history and future in regard to public art.
As opposed to the “Lost Cause” narrative which tells a white supremacist history that excludes both my Black and Hispanic students, the story the Great Wall of Los Angeles tells is of a multiethnic society that has always existed and that can inspire a positive future by serving to “encourage the public to imagine a social and cultural possibility never before contemplated-the formation of community,” a community where connections can fight bias.[10] Baca herself describes the purpose of a monument “to bring the past into the present to inspire the future.”[11] In Richmond, my Hispanic students have brought their past to a new place with a history that is being actively reexamined. By applying Baca’s approach to our own examination of Richmond history, my hope is that we can all be inspired to build a brighter future.
Comments: