Pew Center for Arts and Heritage

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Declaration House

Monument Lab
Sonya Clark, Reversals rehearsal still, 2019. Photo by Carlos Avendaño.
Sonya Clark, Reversals rehearsal still, 2019. Photo by Carlos Avendaño.
Sharon Hayes, If They Should Ask, 2017, Philadelphia City Hall. Presented as part of Monument Lab in partnership with Mural Arts Philadelphia. Photo by Steve Weinik.
Sharon Hayes, If They Should Ask, 2017, Philadelphia City Hall. Presented as part of Monument Lab in partnership with Mural Arts Philadelphia. Photo by Steve Weinik.
Public engagement during Monument Lab: A Citywide Exhibition, 2017, produced in partnership with Mural Arts Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA. Photo credit by Steve Weinik.
Public engagement during Monument Lab: A Citywide Exhibition, 2017, produced in partnership with Mural Arts Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA. Photo credit by Steve Weinik.

A public art installation, public programs, and a publication reframe the history of America’s founding, centering on the story of Robert Hemings, an enslaved valet who aided Thomas Jefferson at the Declaration House, the Philadelphia site where Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence. The project’s lead artist Sonya Clark, whose work is concerned with national history and memory, develops an installation that shines a light on Hemings’ legacy and the role Black and Indigenous peoples have played in American history. Additionally, five Philadelphia-area cultural practitioners produce related programs in a “creative programming residency.” The project publication documents the artistic works and reframes what is and is not “self-evident” about the site of the Declaration House across history.

Visit the project website.

The total grant amount represents project funding plus an additional 20% in unrestricted general operating support.

Recipient
Monument Lab

Monument Lab

Monument Lab is a nonprofit public art and history to explore public art, space, and memory. Founded in 2012 by Paul Farber and Pew Fellow Ken Lum, the organization cultivates and facilitates critical conversations around the past, present, and future of monuments, defining a monument as “a statement of power and presence in public.” 

More info
News

$9.5 Million From The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage to Support 30 Philadelphia Organizations and 12 Artist Fellowships

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EgoPo Classic Theater, rehearsal for Ramayana with Papermoon Puppet Theatre and Kalanari Theatre Movement, 2023, Java, Indonesia. Photo courtesy of EgoPo. 

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