Juneteenth Commemorative Spaces

FUNDERS: TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY T3 GRANT; TAMU SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE DIVERSITY COUNCIL; TXTC; DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE; PRIVATE DONORS

FACULTY: ARCHITECTURE: GREGORY LUHAN, STEPHEN CAFFEY, ANDREW TRIPP, JOHN T. COOPER, JR.; DEIDRA D. DAVIS, ANDREA ROBERTS

PRAIRIE VIEW A&M UNIVERSITY: IKHLAS SABOUNI, BRUCE BUCKHORN, WILLIAM BATSON, STEPHEN SONG, NESTOR INFANZON, MICHAEL

HURD, JASON SPENCER, CAROL BUNCH DAVIS

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY-GALVESTON: JOANN DIGEORGIO-LUTZ, DONNA LANG

Juneteenth is the oldest celebration of the abolishment of slavery in the United States. June 19th marked the day when Gen. Gordon Granger stepped onto Galveston Island with 2,000 troops and issued General Order No. 3 proclaiming freedom for more than 250,000 enslaved people in Texas in 1865.

Catalyst: After gaining national attention and federal recognition in 2021, passionate local citizens in Galveston County approached TAMU in July of 2021 to help rethink and reimagine how Galveston would best develop commemorative spaces of the historic event at its place of origin. TxTC formed and met monthly with a local task force beginning in January 2022. The task force represents various stakeholders with past and current interests in commemorating the Juneteenth historical event and fostering the development of a proposed museum in Galveston with local "knowledge bearers" of Juneteenth in Galveston. Task force members discerned that as the country grapples with re-imagining monuments and memorials, we also needed to expand the narrative of our shared history.

Purpose: To provide design concepts of commemorative spaces, programs, and scholarship associated with or inspired by Juneteenth in Galveston.

Outputs

Produced measured drawings of three sites.

Conducted a series of design charrettes to develop potential design schemes. Conducted oral history interviews. Developed proof-of-concept "Freedom Walk" AR/VR vignettes and the B-roll footage for the documentary. Participated in a Reinventing the 21st museum workshop and used those ideas to lay a foundation for the TAMU+PVAMU designs.

Utilized Hello Lamppost to gather crowdsourced data for the distributed museum approach

Worked with casting artists to develop the bell, the proof-of-concept public art displays at various critical locations. Designed and built installation for Juneteenth 2022 celebration.

Freedom Walk: To bring the historical content beyond the walls of a traditional museum, students and faculty developed concepts for a distributed, open-air, public art project that integrated virtual and extended reality formats. The TAMU research also launched a proof-of-concept crowdsourced collection tool at different nodes of Galveston's "Freedom Walk." These locations connect to the TAMU team's AR/VR vignettes and the Hello Lamp Post texting application. Visitors learn about the history and share stories by accessing the vignettes and applications, so data can be woven into and included in a distributed museum, thus enabling deeper connections to the expanded narrative.

The Bell: The Nia Cultural Center installation features a full-scale, proof-of-concept "bell" art display that symbolizes plantation bells, slave ship bells, and fugitive slave bells. This bell also symbolizes freedom and a call to action. The TAMU team developed a tripartite, large format exhibition screen that featured the historical narrative of the bell, the making of the bell with Dallas-based artisans Brad Oldham and Christy Coltrin, and the output of the TAMU/PVAMU Design Charrettes.