Art and Artifact: Murals from the Minneapolis Uprising opened this month at the Katherine E. Nash Gallery at the University of Minnesota. The exhibition catalogs the murals made on the plywood boards that covered Twin Cities businesses during the June 2020 protests following the murder of George Floyd. The exhibition is the largest display of the murals indoors since they were made four years ago.
It’s presented in association with Memorialize the Movement, an organization dedicated to preserving the murals created during the protests. The “living archive” works to curate spaces where the murals can speak for themselves and retain the original intent of the artist: a form of protest. The organization has collected over 1,000 murals so far.
Founder and executive director of Memorialize the Movement Leesa Kelly says she started the organization when she was driving around Minneapolis in 2020 and saw people throwing the murals away. She then started the organization to keep the murals out of the garbage or a museum, and in the hands of the community. “Local museums tossed around the idea of collecting the murals themself, and the thought enraged me,” Kelly says. “It just felt wrong to allow a museum rooted in colonialism and imperialism to collect this art … It was born in protest and should be honored as such.”
Kelly mentions the whiteness of the curation industry as another reason to keep the murals out of museums. “Four percent of all curators in the United States are Black. That means that if a museum had collected this art, there would likely be only one Black person in the entire institution who could tell this story,” she says.
Curator Amira McLendon spent much of her sophomore year at the University of Minnesota cataloging these murals with Memorialize the Movement as an artist and liaison intern. Soon, McLendon, who graduated in spring 2024, had worked her way up as a board member of the organization. Now, she is a first-time curator.
“It seems crazy,” McLendon says. “If you asked me back in 2021 if I could see myself graduating with a curatorial debut, I would think you’re crazy.”
McLendon spent more than a year curating the exhibition, which was originally targeted to display in a smaller gallery in another building. But when the gallery director began planning the exhibition, it had to be moved to a bigger space due to the sheer amount of murals.
The exhibition hits close to home for McLendon. “When it comes to getting people to talk about 2020 and police brutality against Black people, it felt like people weren’t answering that call,” she says. She hopes that the exhibition will help rekindle urgency about the issue. “My hope is to ignite that fire to people’s feet again.”
The exhibition features a mural by Minneapolis artist Seitu Jones at the front of the display called Blues for George, which was originally painted on a piece of plywood on University Avenue. Jones created a stencil of Floyd’s face in blue for people to download in 2020. This stencil was used to create the blue-shaded mural of Floyd’s face and the words “Say His Name.” Jones says that Kelly’s preservation of the murals is important.
“There’s work that I’ve created that I don’t even have or have photographs of, let alone a physical piece. What Leesa has done is rescue a set of national treasures,” Jones says.
Art curator Leslie Guy likens the experience to the destruction of the Celebration of Life mural by the city of Minneapolis in 2001. The mural was painted on a sound wall on the Olson Memorial Highway by John Biggers and Jones in 1996. “The mural is a cautionary tale of how the histories and concerns of underrepresented communities can be easily disregarded,” she says.
Guy also notes the significance of archiving these murals to protect them from mildew and fungi. “It’s not just the fact that these pieces are being lost and potentially thrown away, there’s biodeterioration working against survival,” she said. “Collecting is not glamorous work.”
As for McLendon, she says that these murals not only emerged as part of the tradition of Black protest art and activism, but also out of a moment of intense pain and anger. “Black people are still being killed by police,” she said. “I keep thinking about Sonya Massey, who was killed in her own home. It feels like people have already stopped talking about that.”
Ultimately, McLendon says that she hopes the exhibition causes visitors to reflect on progress since the June 2020 protests and how they have changed in the four years since then. “I want people to reflect on 2020 and think about how we are now in 2024 and ask themselves: Are they proud of where we are?”
Katherine E. Nash Gallery, 401 21st Ave. S., Mpls.
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