On the fifth anniversary of the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue, Swords Into Plowshares announced the design concept for the next stage of the project: ROOTED, by Model of Architecture Serving Society and Dana King. The former monument’s melted-down bronze will be transformed into a new public artwork at the center of a redesigned Market Street Park.
“For more than a decade, Charlottesville has stood at the center of national debates about Confederate monuments, racial violence, historical memory, and the future of public space,” reads an excerpt from the July 10 announcement. “Swords Into Plowshares asks what comes after removal: how a community might transform a symbol of white supremacy into something that reflects shared values, public accountability, and the possibility of repair.”
The design concept from artist King and MASS was selected via a ranked-choice survey of almost 1,000 community members. ROOTED was the first choice design for 64 percent of respondents.
At the center of the design is a baobab tree, chosen for its “pan-African symbolism for wisdom, longevity, and interconnection,” with seasonal gardens and brick niches also highlighted in the project proposal. New pathways will web across the park, connecting gathering spaces and gardens. The interior of the baobab tree is imagined with handprints of community members, with the possibility of extending the sculpture’s message to other spaces across the city with installations of baobab fruit sculptures and imagery.
“ROOTED is designed to echo the spirit of welcome and belonging to Market Street Park,” said King in the July 10 announcement from SIP. “My hope is that in a few years, the park will be full of laughter and playfulness, conversations and dancing. Because then, ROOTED will have done what it was intended to do—bring all kinds of people together in comfort, creating something we can all be wildly proud of.”
While the concept is fleshed out, SIP’s announcement emphasized plans for continued community engagement in the project.
“We believe that the most impactful art emerges from genuine collaboration,” said Andrea Douglas, SIP co-founder and Jefferson School African American Heritage Center executive director. “The extensive community engagement we’ve undertaken—with input from so many diverse voices—has been absolutely vital to this project. We’re thrilled to be working alongside such an accomplished and thoughtful design team. I am confident that we will create something lasting and meaningful.”
Both King and MASS have previously worked on projects transforming spaces and architecture like Market Street Park, examining the history of people and environments.
King, who describes herself as a “classical figurative sculptor who creates public monuments of Black bodies in bronze,” has a portfolio of work spanning the United States. Highlights from King’s portfolio include Monumental Reckoning Golden Gate Park (San Francisco, California, 2021), King William Lanson (New Haven, Connecticut, 2020), and a sculpture of Black Panther Party for Self Defense co-founder Dr. Huey P. Newton, commissioned by his widow in 2021, and permanently installed in Oakland, California.
Among MASS’s most notable undertakings is The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, designed in collaboration with Bryan Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative. A Charlottesville delegation led by JSAAHC visited the museum and the national lynching memorial in 2018.
“We experienced firsthand the powerful healing work of this design firm,” said Jalane Schmidt, SIP co-founder, in the July 10 announcement. “The Swords Into Plowshares project looks forward to collaborating with MASS in the community engagement process to transform Charlottesville’s public space to support our striving for multiracial democracy.”
With the ninth anniversary of the August 11 and 12 Unite the Right white supremecist rally on the horizon, SIP hopes to complete its plans for the new monument in time for the 10th anniversary next summer.
This is a breaking story. C-VILLE continues to monitor the Swords Into Plowshares project.
