Public Art x Preservation
Public art initiatives can be used to directly support preservation efforts by drawing attention to historic sites and engaging with their communities in interesting ways. Bringing contemporary artists into historic spaces drives dialogue and helps bring the past into the present. In this webinar, our panelists highlight how public art and preservation can work together, from public monuments to historic house museums.
Emma Boast, currently a program associate at the Mellon Foundation working in support of their Monuments Project, spoke about our collective commemorative landscape. Naomi Hersson-Ringskog, co-founder of No Longer Empty and the Department of Small Interventions, highlighted ways she has engaged with artists to active vacant buildings. And Meredith Sorin-Horsford provided an overview of the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum, where she and her team have worked to reinterpret that historic house museum to tell a fuller story of its history — often working with artists to do so. Carol Ward, executive director of the Lexington Historical Society, led the panel in conversation following their presentations.
Specific examples shared by our panel included:
Emma Boast referenced Karyn Olivier’s The Battle Is Joined, which was on display as part of Monument Lab’s 2017 citywide exhibition in Philadelphia. She notes how this piece “demonstrates how a monument can be activated through public art to be something that, in this case, quite literally reflects all of us. Turning a relic of the past into something that is relevant in our present moment, or also demonstrates the ways that public art is truly relational — shaped through participation and interaction and conversation and dialogue. And I think it's about seeing ourselves and our stories reflected in our environment. So it's less about the thing itself but about the stories we tell about ourselves.”
Naomi Hersson-Ringskog highlighted her past work in New York City with No Longer Empty as well as her current project in Newburgh, Building Shells: Building Community. The latter is a collaboration between Naomi and preservationist Liz McEnaney. It is is a “preservation, policy, and design project that explores how the community can work collectively to prevent historic buildings from becoming shells, and to use art as a way to reactivate existing building shells to encourage future redevelopment.” They recently released a bilingual toolkit and announced an open call for artists to create a site-specific intervention at one of Newburgh’s building shells.
In 2020, artist Reggie Black installed his projection titled No Records on the outside of the Dyckman Farmhouse. The large-scale installation projected the words “Slaves Lived Here,” in both English and Spanish, recognizing the legacy of slavery tied to this historic site. In describing the community response, Meredith Sorin-Horsford noted that “the vibe of all of the feedback was, ‘I've lived in this community for X number of years. I've never felt like this place was welcoming or for me and I saw this and now I'm coming to your next program because now I feel like I have a connection to this place. Now I feel welcome in this place.’” No Records is a great example of art breaking down barriers and making a historic place feel more approachable.
Watch the recording below to see the full conversation. And if you know of any great examples of where public art and preservation meet, feel free to get in touch!
Emma Boast is a curator, public historian, and cultural planner leveraging the power of public art and history to advance social justice and equitable community development. She is currently a Program Associate in the Office of the President at the Mellon Foundation, where she works to advance the Monuments Project, a $250 million initiative to transform the nation’s commemorative landscape.
Prior to joining Mellon, Emma was a member of the arts and culture team at the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, where she facilitated cultural planning projects on behalf of local governments throughout Greater Boston and spearheaded social justice-oriented initiatives in community engagement, partnerships, and research. Her experience includes curatorial work with the National Public Housing Museum in Chicago, as well as cultural policy development with the Department of Art, Culture + Tourism in Providence, RI. She also spent five years as the founding director of exhibitions and programming at the Museum of Food and Drink, where she curated groundbreaking exhibitions and programs at the intersection of history, culture, and science. She earned a BA in art history at the University of Chicago and an MA in public humanities at Brown University, where she was a curatorial fellow.
Recognizing the power of incremental change, Dept of Small Interventions (DoSI) launches place-based projects to amplify cultural assets, galvanize collaborations, and build social infrastructure. Projects include the 150th Anniversary of Frederick Douglass visiting Newburgh, Building Shells:Building Community historic preservation project, Urban Archive in Newburgh app and launching the city's first arts and cultural study. Before moving to Newburgh, Naomi Hersson-Ringskog co-founded No Longer Empty, a New York City nonprofit that revives underutilized properties and sites with large, community-responsive art exhibitions, cultural collaborations, and educational programming. In seven years, NLE staged 25 exhibitions, commissioned 250+ artists, engaged 500,000 visitors, and received international acclaim. Naomi earned a Masters Degree in Urban Planning from Columbia University. She currently serves on the board of No Longer Empty, Awesome Newburgh Foundation, The Fullerton Center, Storm King Art Center's Young Council. She is a fellow at the Urban Design Forum, Coro Neighborhood Leadership program, and co-chairs the City of Newburgh's Transportation Advisory Committee
Meredith Sorin Horsford has served as the Executive Director of the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum since 2015, where she leads her team toward creative and inclusive programming and interpretation with a community focused perspective. In 2019, she spearheaded an extensive research project on the enslaved and free Black men and women that were instrumental in the prosperity of the Dyckman Farm. Her goal at the museum is to connect the past with the present through programs such as a reoccurring race lecture series, contemporary art installations highlighting the Black experience in America and urban agricultural programs.
Horsford has worked as a museum and nonprofit professional for 16 years, working previously as the Executive Director of the Gracie Mansion Conservancy, the official mayoral residence, and prior to that, Deputy Director of the Historic House Trust of New York City.
She holds a Master of Arts in Geography from the University of Delaware, a Bachelor of Arts in Geography from the State University of New York College at Geneseo and a certificate in Grantmaking and Foundations from New York University. Horsford also serves as the President of the Board of Directors for the Greater Hudson Heritage Network.
Carol S. Ward has 20 years of collaborative leadership in for profit and nonprofit management, financial oversight, fundraising, strategic planning, Board relationships and grant-winning cultural program development. Ms. Ward is an art historian with her BA from Mary Washington College, and two Masters Degrees, her first in Museum Education from the College of New Rochelle, and her second in Art History from Hunter College.
She has presented the keynote address at Connecticut League of Historic Organizations on connecting an historic site to the community, both the annual American Alliance of Museums and New York City Museum Educators Roundtable conferences on bringing contemporary art into an historic house museum, at Mary Washington College about the future of careers in art history and the museum field and the New-York Historical Society on Alexander Hamilton (the man and the musical).
Articles she has written have been published in The Magazine Antiques, The Historic House Trust journal, the American Alliance of Museums Magazine, Antiques Weekly and catalogs for the Bruce Museum, Morris-Jumel Mansion and Keno Auctions. Her book Visions of America: The Morris-Jumel Mansion was published in 2015 and she has recently appeared in the documentary on the making of the hit musical Hamilton.
This webinar was part of the League's Future of Preservation series. Thank you to our sponsor, the Peggy N. & Roger G. Gerry Charitable Trust.