Navigating the complexity of removing divisive artwork, Columbia Law School has a solution that both acknowledges institutional legacies and embraces experimental campus art, writes Michael Patullo.
As colleges and universities across the country have increasingly begun to reckon with divisive—and often racist—historical symbols on their campuses, traditional and long-visible works of art have been relocated from positions of prominence to dusty basement storage areas far from public view. In some cases, landscaping crews may have gone to work quickly grading and sodding away any trace of former monuments. At many colleges, though, the decapitated pedestals and rectangles of faded paint that remain serve as ghostly reminders of a complex past.
Until now, much of the focus of this work has been devoted to developing criteria for denaming buildings or removing artwork (some institutions, like Johns Hopkins University, have set up thorough and inclusive processes for evaluation). But surprisingly little attention has been paid to what comes next. When traditional oil portraits and classical statues come down, what goes up in their place? How can universities provide aesthetically inspiring environments for teaching, learning and research while at the same time nodding to—or even reckoning with—their institutional legacies?
At Columbia Law School, we have taken a proactive and experimental approach to campus art, which can serve as a model for how institutions might navigate these questions going forward...Keep reading on Inside Higher Ed.
As colleges and universities across the country have increasingly begun to reckon with divisive—and often racist—historical symbols on their campuses, traditional and long-visible works of art have been relocated from positions of prominence to dusty basement storage areas far from public view. In some cases, landscaping crews may have gone to work quickly grading and sodding away any trace of former monuments. At many colleges, though, the decapitated pedestals and rectangles of faded paint that remain serve as ghostly reminders of a complex past.
Until now, much of the focus of this work has been devoted to developing criteria for denaming buildings or removing artwork (some institutions, like Johns Hopkins University, have set up thorough and inclusive processes for evaluation). But surprisingly little attention has been paid to what comes next. When traditional oil portraits and classical statues come down, what goes up in their place? How can universities provide aesthetically inspiring environments for teaching, learning and research while at the same time nodding to—or even reckoning with—their institutional legacies?
At Columbia Law School, we have taken a proactive and experimental approach to campus art, which can serve as a model for how institutions might navigate these questions going forward...Keep reading on Inside Higher Ed.