In the fall of 2021, Davidson College released a Call For Qualifications for the creation of a commemorative work of art to honor the contributions of enslaved people and others whose labor was exploited. The call was open to professional artists, architects, landscape architects, and design teams with experience managing, designing, and completing public art commissions.
The jury identified the most highly qualified artist(s)/architects/teams for this opportunity, and selected five finalists, including Studio Zewde.
Join the conversation with Studio Zewde during their Zoom Community Engagement session on September 6 from 7-8:30 p.m. RSVP here.
Studio Zewde invites residents and members of the local Davidson community, along with the students, faculty, and staff of Davidson College to join us for a collective discussion on the embedded and not so embedded associations of some of the most iconic elements of Davidson College’s campus. In view of the initiative to commemorate enslaved and exploited laborers on campus, the event will engage in a dialogue regarding the legacy, history, associations of key visual elements of the campus.
“Davidson College’s campus testifies to the region’s history of enslavement and bears facts that, unearthed, challenge the dominant historical narratives. As Davidson takes this critical step in reckoning with the enormity of these truths through the work of the Commission on Race and Slavery, the challenge remains to express these truths forthrightly, respectfully, and productively, as to honor them in the public forum of the physical campus.
Studio Zewde is grateful for the opportunity to partner with Davidson College in this ambitious aim. Inspired by Sarah E. Wright’s provocation, “cannot a monument that breathes be built,” but Studio Zewde’s projects work carefully to translate narratives, histories, and memories into meaningful and resonant landscapes that breathe.”
Sara Zewde is founding principal of Studio Zewde, a design firm in New York City practicing landscape architecture, urbanism, and public art. The studio is devoted to creating enduring places where people belong. Named to Architectural Digest’s AD100 and an Emerging Voice by the Architectural League of New York, the firm is celebrated for its design methods that sync culture, ecology, and craft. In parallel with practice, Sara serves as Assistant Professor of Practice at Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Sara was named the 2014 National Olmsted Scholar by the Landscape Architecture Foundation, a 2016 Artist-in-Residence at Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and a 2020 United States Artist Fellow. Sara holds a Master’s of Landscape Architecture from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, a Master’s of city planning from MIT, and a BA in sociology and statistics from Boston University.
Top, left: Genesee Street, Houston, TX; Top, right: Bethel Burial Ground, Philadelphia, PA; Bottom: Barbara Jordan Rising, Houston
To learn about the other finalists, click their names below:
Radcliffe Bailey
Bethany Collins & Torkwase Dyson
Hood Design
Hank Willis Thomas & Perkins&Will