Downtown
New Valentine exhibit tackles racial history along Monument Avenue
The Valentine chose a day celebrating love to open its new exhibit “Monument Avenue: General Demotion/General Devotion,” a series of design ideas to tackle conversations about race and the five Confederate statues on historic Monument Avenue.
By Madison Manske
The Valentine chose a day celebrating love to open its new exhibit “Monument Avenue: General Demotion/General Devotion,” a series of design ideas to tackle conversations about race and the five Confederate statues on historic Monument Avenue.
For over a century, the Valentine has showcased 400 years of Richmond’s history. Now this downtown museum wants to be at the heartbeat of reimagining one of the nation’s oldest avenues.
Virginia Commonwealth University’s mObstudiO and Storefront for Community Design invited teams or individuals of all ages and professions to imaginatively redesign the 5.4-mile thoroughfare. Camden Whitehead, the project director and associate professor of interior design at VCU, said the team of organizers have been working on the project for almost four years now.
“This is one way that design can spur action,” Whitehead said. “The competition is intended for the conversation about race in Richmond.”
The blueprints for each vision are hung throughout the gallery, so visitors can walk around and spend time viewing each one. The materials, inspiration, and impact of the design are detailed on the displays.
Some projects echoed the idea to introduce small history museums or create community art installations throughout the median.
“Intertwine” envisions removing the monuments from high pedestals and instead bring them down to human scale. “Constructive civic discussion” would be encouraged by “intertwining” all of the city’s cultural history and adding more context.
Another plan would create a dome-like structure around the monuments that lights up from within at night. There would be historical artifacts inside these new “exhibition spaces.”
“That’s really one of the powers of design – it gets ideas out in front of people in visual form so that they can understand sort of ‘what if something happened,’” Whitehead said.
Adele Ball, project manager and graphic designer, said the exhibit planners leaned on architecture and design websites, as well as social media, to promote the project and recruit applicants.
“We, the organizers of the competition, believe that design can function as a tool to promote more civil discourse about the industry and display of racism and social justice in our city,” Ball said.
The exhibit opened just a few days after Richmond City Council voted to rename a main city thoroughfare from “the Boulevard” to “Arthur Ashe Boulevard.” The road spans from the tennis courts at Byrd Park, named after Ashe though he could not play there when he was younger because of racial segregation, and the intersection of Brookland Parkway and Westwood Avenue.
“I think that it’s a good step in recognizing heroes and public figures from our historical past that haven’t been represented before,” Ball said.
Monument Avenue is home to statues of Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and J.E.B. Stuart; the president of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis; and Matthew Fontaine Maury, who commanded the Confederacy’s naval operations. The most recently added statute of Arthur Ashe sits blocks away from Confederate memorials.
There has been repeated vandalism to the statues over the years, and the avenue’s history — which stretches back to late 1890s — hasn’t aligned with recent social justice movements. Nationwide, these movements have sparked ongoing discussions about the future of Confederate statues and influenced the removal of statues in several cities such as Baltimore and New Orleans.
In 2017, Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney created the Monument Avenue Commission to seek input on how to “best tell the real story of these monuments.” Two months later in Charlottesville, a young woman was killed by a white supremacist at a counterdemonstration of the “Unite the Right” rally after the city attempted to remove a statue of Lee.
Afterward, Richmond City Council Member Mike Jones introduced an ordinance to remove some of the statues along Monument Avenue, but it was voted down. When the mayor’s commission released its final report, it recommended removing the Davis statue, adding historical context to the other statues and erecting new monuments that told a “more inclusive” history.
“We hope that the competition serves as a model for how to conduct that discourse in other cities and other communities around the country,” Ball said.
The judges of the exhibit – a five-member jury representing architecture, urban planning, landscape design and African-American history – selected 20 finalists from 46 entries. Participants paid a $75 fee to blueprint their ideas.
The exhibit will run until Nov. 21, when the winner will be selected and awarded a monetary prize of $10,000. Visitors to the exhibit can vote on their favorite design idea for an additional “people’s choice award” winner.
Bill Martin, director of the Valentine, said having so many creative ideas in one room is important to the museum and the Richmond community.
“This is the inspiration point that we hope will be the jumping off point for what happens next,” Martin said.
Admission to the Valentine is $10 for adults and $8 with a student ID or for visitors over age 55. Entry is free for those with military ID, under age 18 and with Valentine membership. The Valentine, 1015 E. Clay St., is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.
Community
Library of Virginia Honors Deaf History Month With a Talk and Exhibition on the History of a Shenandoah County Deaf Village and Shared Signing Community
Between 1740 and 1970, Lantz Mills, Virginia, was home to many families with a mix of hearing and deaf parents and at least one or more deaf siblings.
In honor of April as Deaf History Month, the Library of Virginia will present a talk on April 22 and a traveling panel exhibition running April 1–30 on the history of the Lantz Mills deaf village and shared signing community in Shenandoah County, Virginia. Both are free.
Between 1740 and 1970, Lantz Mills, Virginia, was home to many families with a mix of hearing and deaf parents and at least one or more deaf siblings. When both the hearing and deaf members of a locality use a shared visual language to communicate, that is known as a shared signing community. Those familiar with deaf culture may know that Martha’s Vineyard, the island off Massachusetts, was home to a shared signing community where 25% of the population was deaf. But few know that Virginia had a deaf village and shared signing community in Shenandoah County.
The Lantz Mills Deaf Village panel exhibition has appeared at Shenandoah County Public Library and the Northern Virginia Resource Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People. It will visit the Eastern Shore Public Library in June. The exhibition is available for display at public libraries and other cultural facilities. For more information, contact Barbara Batson at [email protected] or 804.692.3721.
The talk and exhibition are made possible in part with federal funding provided through the Library Services and Technology Act administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. For more information about the commonwealth’s deaf culture, visit the Virginia Deaf Culture Digital Library at https://deaflibva.org.
DEAF HISTORY MONTH TALK | The Lantz Mills Shared Signing Community
Saturday, April 22, 2023 | 10:00–11:00 a.m. | Free
Place: Lecture Hall, Library of Virginia, 800 East Broad St., Richmond, VA 23219
Registration suggested: https://lva-virginia.libcal.com/event/10478065
In honor of Deaf History Month, the Library presents a talk exploring the history of the Lantz Mills deaf village in Shenandoah County, Virginia, by deaf historian and advocate Kathleen Brockway, who is also a Lantz Mills deaf village descendant.
DEAF HISTORY MONTH PANEL EXHIBITION | Lantz Mills Deaf Village
April 1–30, 2023 | Monday–Saturday, 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. | Free
Place: Lobby & Pre-function Hall, Library of Virginia, 800 East Broad St., Richmond, VA 23219
In honor of Deaf History Month, the Library presents a panel exhibition exploring the history of the Lantz Mills deaf village in Shenandoah County, Virginia. This six-panel traveling exhibition features the history of prominent deaf villagers such as the Hollar and Christian families, deaf members’ involvement in local businesses, and even a budding romance within the community. Each panel includes a QR code that links to ASL interpretation of the text featured. A booklet about the topic written by deaf historian and Lantz Mills deaf village descendant Kathleen Brockway will be available to exhibition visitors while supplies last.
Downtown
Feds identify ‘significant’ ongoing concerns with Virginia special education
After failing to meet federal requirements to support students with disabilities in 2020, the Virginia Department of Education will remain under further review by the federal government after continuing to fall short in monitoring and responding to complaints against school districts, according to a letter from the U.S. Department of Education.
By Nathaniel Cline
After failing to meet federal requirements to support students with disabilities in 2020, the Virginia Department of Education will remain under further review by the federal government after continuing to fall short in monitoring and responding to complaints against school districts, according to a letter from the U.S. Department of Education.
“We have significant new or continued areas of concerns with the State’s implementation of general supervision, dispute resolution, and confidentiality requirements” of IDEA, stated the Feb. 17 letter from the Office of Special Education Programs.
The U.S. Department of Education first flagged its concerns in a June 2020 “Differentiated Monitoring and Support Report” on how Virginia was complying with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, following a 2019 visit by the Office of Special Education Programs.
IDEA, passed in 1975, requires all students with disabilities to receive a “free appropriate public education.”
The Virginia Department of Education disputed some of the federal government’s findings in a June 19, 2020 letter.
Samantha Hollins, assistant superintendent of special education and student services, wrote that verbal complaints “are addressed via technical assistance phone calls to school divisions” and staff members “regularly work to resolve parent concerns” by providing “guidance documentation” and acting as intermediaries between school employees and parents.
However, some parents and advocates say systemic problems in how the state supports families of children with disabilities persist. At the same time, a June 15, 2022 state report found one of Virginia’s most critical teacher shortage areas is in special education.
“Appropriate policies and procedures for both oversight and compliance, and their implementation, are crucial to ensuring that children with disabilities and their families are afforded their rights under IDEA and that a free appropriate public education (FAPE) is provided,” said the Feb. 17 letter from the Office of Special Education Programs.
While the U.S. Department of Education wrote that it believes the Virginia Department of Education has resolved some of the problems identified in 2020, including resolving complaints filed by parents and creating a mediation plan, it said it has identified “new and continued areas of concern” and intends to continue monitoring Virginia’s provision of services for students with disabilities.
Among those are ongoing concerns over the state’s complaint and due process systems that “go beyond the originally identified concerns” originally found. The Office of Special Education Programs writes it has concluded Virginia “does not have procedures and practices that are reasonably designed to ensure a timely resolution process” for due process complaints.
The department also said it has concerns over the practices of at least five school districts that are inconsistent with IDEA’s regulations.
The decision comes after the U.S. Department of Education announced in November that Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia’s largest school district, failed to provide thousands of students with disabilities with the educational services they were entitled to during remote learning at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Virginia is also facing a federal class-action lawsuit over claims that its Department of Education and Fairfax County Public Schools violated the rights of disabled students under IDEA.
Parents involved in the case said the Virginia Department of Education and Fairfax school board “have actively cultivated an unfair and biased” hearing system to oversee challenges to local decisions about disabled students, according to the suit.
Charles Pyle, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Education, said in an email that “VDOE continues to work with our federal partners to ensure Virginia’s compliance with all federal requirements, as we have since the ‘Differentiated Monitoring and Support Report’ was issued in June 2020.”
The federal government said if Virginia could not demonstrate full compliance with IDEA requirements, it could impose conditions on grant funds the state receives to support early intervention and special education services for children with disabilities and their families.
Last year, Virginia received almost $13.5 billion in various grants linked to IDEA, according to a July 1, 2022 letter to former Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow, who resigned on March 9.
James Fedderman, president of the Virginia Education Association, blasted Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration after the findings were released.
“While the Youngkin administration has been busy waging culture wars in schools, his administration has failed to meet basic compliance requirements with the U.S. Department of Education for students with disabilities,” Fedderman said. “This failure threatens our federal funding for students with disabilities and is a disservice to Virginia families who need critical special needs support.”
Downtown
Richmond 911 callers can soon provide feedback on calls for service via text message
Beginning March 20, those who call 911 with some types of non-life-threatening emergencies will receive a text message within hours or a day after the call with a short survey about the service they received on the call.
Some 911 callers in Richmond will begin to receive follow-up text messages next week asking for their ranking of the service they received and additional information.
Beginning March 20, those who call 911 with some types of non-life-threatening emergencies will receive a text message within hours or a day after the call with a short survey about the service they received on the call.
The Richmond Department of Emergency Communications, Preparedness and Response is using the feedback from callers as another way to ensure that it is continuing to deliver excellent emergency services to Richmond.
“It is very important that those who receive the text message answer the questions as accurately as possible, based on the service they received on the call, not on the response from first responders with different agencies,” said Director Stephen Willoughby. “We use the feedback that callers provide to monitor and improve our 911 services to Richmond residents and visitors, as well as the other measurements of service that we have in place.”
Those who would like to offer feedback, but do not receive a text message, are encouraged to email [email protected] or call 804-646-5911. More information about offering commendations or filing a complaint is on the department’s website athttps://www.rva.gov/911/comments. In addition, the department conducts a full survey of adults who live, work and study in Richmond every two years. More information about those surveys and results are at https://www.rva.gov/911/community-outreach.
The Department of Emergency Communications, Preparedness and Response is using a third-party vendor, PowerEngage, to send the text-message surveys and report the results. Text messages may be sent for other uses in the future.
More information about the text-message surveys, from the news release:
- The answers that callers provide in the text message have no effect on the service provided to that caller.
- Callers who do not want to participate in the text-message survey would simply not respond to the text message. They also may reply STOP to opt out of future text surveys from DECPR.
- Callers should not use the surveys to report any other emergency or request help. They would need to call or text 911 for immediate help. To file a police report or request nonemergency public safety help, call 804-646-5100. For other city services, call 311, visit rva311.com or use the RVA311 app.
- Those who have further questions or would like to request a call-back from a staff member about the survey or their experiences, may email [email protected].
- More information about the after-call survey is at https://www.rva.gov/911/survey.
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