Exploring Public Art and Community Histories with Monument Lab

My name is Jess Batychenko and I’m a fourth-year PhD student in the English Department on the rhetoric and composition track. My academic interests come together at the intersections of literacy studies, education, urban studies, and geography, and my current project is focused around an oral history collection from a neighborhood in Baltimore and the ways in which perceptions of literacy/illiteracy play a role in displacement as communities undergo urban renewal.

This summer, supported by a Humanities Engage immersive fellowship, I’m working with Monument Lab, a public art and history studio based out of Philadelphia (but currently expanding to other cities!). Monument Lab works with a wide-range of collaborators – from artists to educators to cultural institutions – to facilitate participatory approaches to public engagement and collective memory. While my academic research provides me with a nuanced understanding about what’s wrong with current urban placemaking practices, working with the Monument Lab offers real-life, working experience into what can be done to intervene in productive and positive ways. This fellowship offers an opportunity to explore what community involvement and engagement in community-centered placemaking look like in practice and how these initiatives take shape through various projects across different cities.

I’m helping Monument Lab get a new project a started and off the ground. This fall, they’re participating in ArtworxTO: Toronto’s Year of Public Art 2021-2022, an initiative aimed at renewing the city of Toronto’s commitment to public art, with a specific focus on acknowledging Indigenous people’s history, present, and future and at creating more equitable public art practices. Monument Lab will participate in a series of activations at sites of memory around the city in a monument mobile. They will be staging activations and conducting an open research process around a guiding question: What’s Next for Toronto? The findings from this project will ultimately inform a final report to the city’s cultural affairs office on recommendations and next steps for commemorative policies.

My current assignment involves performing preliminary research on historical sites in the city and mapping potential sites for programming. This will help facilitators make decisions about where programming will take place and, later, what that programming looks like. Digging into the rich history of sites around the city will allow Monument Lab to ask thoughtful and complex questions about what is remembered, represented, and celebrated in the city of Toronto and how the city can begin to reevaluate their public art practices and create public art opportunities that are open to and inclusive of all the communities across Toronto. My early research will provide the foundation for programming moving forward and help shape the direction of Monument Lab’s involvement in this initiative. Working on the early stages of this project has really allowed me to see how these projects take shape and grow into something that the public can engage with. I’m excited to help Monument Lab expand their reach to cities outside of Philadelphia.

Jess Batychenko
English
June 2021
 
Learn about all the Pitch Your Own Summer Immersive Fellows and Curated Immersive Summer Fellows and their experiences with their host organizations.