With Confederates vanquished, what’s next for Richmond’s Monument Avenue?
Removal of Lee Monument on September 8, 2021, Scott Elmquist/Style Weekly
Museum and arts groups also urged the city to pause before removing the pedestals. “Over the summer of 2020, Richmond citizens rapidly recontextualized several of the monument’s bases, transforming them into powerful platforms for shared voice and civic demonstration,” wrote Ashley Hawkins, the director of Studio Two Three. “We want a process that honors these efforts and envisions these platforms as sites for healing, historical recontextualization, and/or spaces for new works of art.”
City officials declined, voting in June to remove them, either paving over them entirely or replacing the stone work with landscaping.