No. 454: Lewis Carroll, Monument Lab in St. Louis

Episode No. 454 features art historian Diane Waggoner and curator and historian Paul Farber.

Waggoner is the author of “Lewis Carroll’s Photography and Modern Childhood” which is new from Princeton University Press. The book examines how Carroll’s photographs of children helped inform changing English ideas about childhood during the Victorian era. Amazon offers it for $60. Waggoner is a curator at the National Gallery of Art, Washington.

On the second segment, Farber discusses Monument Lab’s recent two-year research residency at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts in Saint Louis. Farber is the co-founder of Monument Lab, a public art and history studio that cultivates conversations around civic monuments.

On June 20-22, Farber and Monument Lab will be presenting recent work done as a part of that residency and discussing the question, “How would you map the monuments of Saint Louis” with residency participants and colleagues. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the program will be presented over three days via Zoom.

The keynote conversation, “Toward Monumental Justice” begins on Monday, July 20 at 5:30 pm CDT. It will feature Zyahna Bryant, student activist and community organizer; Geoff Ward, Professor of African and African-American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis; and lauren woods, artist, in conversation with Farber. Poet and storyteller Cheeraz Gormon will initiate the event with an opening reading. Please register here (free).

On Tuesday, July 21, a panel will discuss the recent removal of the Christopher Colombus statue from St. Louis’s Tower Grove Park. The event features Marvin-Alonzo Greer, Education and Visitor Experience Lead for Soldiers Memorial Military Museum; and Alyssa Lazzeroni, MSW, LMSW, CLC, in conversation with Lindsey Manshack, Research Manager at the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies at Washington University in St. Louis & PhD Candidate of Indigenous Health at the University of North Dakota. Please register here (free).

On Wednesday, July 22 at noon CDT, Monument Lab will present “Public Iconographies Workshop: Putting Data to Action.” It will explore the 750 maps that were collected during Monument Lab’s residency at the Pulitzer and how its dataset might inform future monument-related projects. It will be led by Monument Lab’s Laurie Allen and Allison Nkwocha and the St. Louis-based residency research team of Liz Deichmann, arts administrator and researcher; Derek Laney, activist; and MK Stallings, poet and Founder of URB Arts. Please register here (free).

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Instagram: Paul Farber, Monument Lab, Tyler Green.

Air date: July 16, 2020.