Monument Lab

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Monument Lab Public Art + History studio. We cultivate and facilitate critical conversations around the past, pres

Monument Lab is a nonprofit public art, history, and design studio based in Philadelphia. We are dedicated to advancing justice by reimagining monuments as places for belonging, learning, and healing. We believe that our unreconciled past and our inherited monument landscape continue to reinforce systems of injustice, haunt our present, and impact our individual and collective futures. We center artists and local changemakers to collectively transform how monuments are created, interpreted, and experienced. We cultivate conversations about the past, present, and future of monuments as a means to animate democracy and foster generational change.

10/17/2026

Join us today for 2026 Monument Lab Fellow and artist Miguel Braceli’s “Piñata Party,” a participatory performance transforming the flag into a shared vessel for celebration, exchange, and collective imagination.
Rooted in the Latin American tradition of the piñata, this joyful gathering invites participants of all ages to explore belonging, transnational identity, and the possibilities of creating together.

📍 Governors Island | Saturday, October 17

🎨 3–5 PM: Join a drop-in workshop with LA ESCUELA___ to create small objects that will fill the piñatas and become part of the performance.

🥁 5 PM: Follow a procession led by the First Panamanian Marching Band of Brooklyn, featuring a collective flag made from multiple flagpoles. The celebration culminates in the breaking of flag-shaped piñatas and the sharing of their contents.

🪅RSVP at the link in bio.

Presented by Monument Lab, Governors Island Arts, and LA ESCUELA___

Five years after its release, the National Monument Audit continues to generate new common knowledge about who and what ...
10/16/2026

Five years after its release, the National Monument Audit continues to generate new common knowledge about who and what America commemorates—and what our monument landscape leaves out.

Researchers, educators, government agencies, artists, and civic leaders across the country have drawn on its findings, language, and methods to study their own landscapes, inform public policy and planning, and imagine new possibilities for commemoration.

Don’t Miss the launch of “Bulletin 03: Kindred” in Philly next week!Rooted in an expansive vision of kinship. “Bulletin ...
10/09/2026

Don’t Miss the launch of “Bulletin 03: Kindred” in Philly next week!

Rooted in an expansive vision of kinship. “Bulletin 03” threads connections among families and chosen families, neighbors and strangers, the living and the dead, people and place—and imagines how those bonds might reshape the stories we inherit and the futures we make.

Join us on October 15, for an evening of readings, making, food, and fellowship as we gather around the ideas, stories, and connections at the heart of the publication. RSVP at the link in bio.

Contributors: Mercedes Dorame, Raquel Gutiérrez, Anne Ishii, Paul Farber, Aubree Penney, Roque Raquel Salas Rivera, Sasha Stiles, Lava Thomas, Mi'Jan Celie Tho-Biaz, Marvin K. White, carmen.winant, and Yolanda Wisher

Centered around the often-overlooked contributions of Black women in Revolutionary-era New Jersey “Ceremony for Revoluti...
10/08/2026

Centered around the often-overlooked contributions of Black women in Revolutionary-era New Jersey “Ceremony for Revolutionary Seeds,” is a traveling public art installation and participatory ritual series by Idlewild Experiential and Nandi Jordan (Nandi).

Join us for the final stop in the series, learn more and RSVP at the link in bio.

October 9| Johnson Cemetery Memorial Park, Camden, NJ
🌿 4pm — Site opens
🎤 4:30 — Performance
🎨 5PM — Art making workshops

Ceremony for Revolutionary Seeds is produced by Idlewild Experiential and Nandi Jordan in partnership with Monument Lab. The project is supported by the New Jersey Department of State through the New Jersey State Council on the Arts (a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts), the New Jersey Historical Commission (NJ Historical Commission), and RevNJ

Centered around the often-overlooked contributions of Black women in Revolutionary-era New Jersey “Ceremony for Revolut...
10/08/2026

Centered around the often-overlooked contributions of Black women in Revolutionary-era New Jersey “Ceremony for Revolutionary Seeds,” is a traveling public art installation and participatory ritual series by Idlewild Experiential and Nandi Jordan (Nandi).

Join us for the final stop in the series, learn more and RSVP at the link in bio.

October 9| Johnson Cemetery Memorial Park, Camden, NJ
🌿 4pm — Site opens
🎤 4:30 — Performance
🎨 5PM — Art making workshops

This Friday, October 9, join us for the final stop of “Ceremony for Revolutionary Seeds,” a traveling public art install...
10/07/2026

This Friday, October 9, join us for the final stop of “Ceremony for Revolutionary Seeds,” a traveling public art installation and participatory ritual series by Idlewild Experiential and Nandi Jordan (Nandi).

A testament to Black life, remembrance, and community resilience, Johnson Cemetery Memorial Park is a historic Black burial ground and the final resting place for Camden’s early Black settlers, founding families, and Civil War veterans.

Through guided tea rituals, site-specific performance, hands-on art-making, and collective reflection, “Ceremony for Revolutionary Seeds” honors the enduring legacies of Black women in Revolutionary-era New Jersey.

Learn more about the activation and RSVP at the link in bio.

Ceremony for Revolutionary Seeds is produced by Idlewild Experiential and Nandi Jordan in partnership with Monument Lab. The project is supported by the New Jersey Department of State through the New Jersey State Council on the Arts (a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts), the New Jersey Historical Commission (NJ Historical Commission), and RevNJ

Gather with us on October 12 for the final stop of “Ceremony for Revolutionary Seeds,” a traveling public art installat...
10/06/2026

Gather with us on October 12 for the final stop of “Ceremony for Revolutionary Seeds,” a traveling public art installation and participatory ritual series by Idlewild Experiential and Nandi Jordan (Nandi).

A testament to Black life, remembrance, and community resilience, Johnson Cemetery Memorial Park is a historic Black burial ground and the final resting place for Camden’s early Black settlers, founding families, and Civil War veterans.

Through guided tea rituals, site-specific performance, hands-on art-making, and collective reflection, “Ceremony for Revolutionary Seeds” honors the enduring legacies of Black women in Revolutionary-era New Jersey.

Learn more about the activation and RSVP at the link in bio.

Ceremony for Revolutionary Seeds is produced by Idlewild Experiential and Nandi Jordan in partnership with Monument Lab. The project is supported by the New Jersey Department of State through the New Jersey State Council on the Arts (a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts), the New Jersey Historical Commission (NJ Historical Commission), and RevNJ.

Published in the wake of the United States’ 250th anniversary, “Bulletin 03: Kindred” asks what belonging might make pos...
10/02/2026

Published in the wake of the United States’ 250th anniversary, “Bulletin 03: Kindred” asks what belonging might make possible when we understand commemoration not only as a way of remembering the past, but as a practice of relationship.

Edited by Monument Lab Senior Curator Yolanda Wisher, the publication gathers a constellation of writers, artists, poets, and thinkers whose work expands what it means to be—and become—kin.

Join us for the launch of “Bulletin 03: Kindred” on October 15, from 7-8:30pm at The Village of Industry and Art. RSVP at the link in bio.

Contributors: Mercedes Dorame, Raquel Gutiérrez, Anne Ishii, Paul M. Farber, Aubree Penney, Roque Raquel Salas Rivera, Sasha Stiles, Lava Thomas, Mi’Jan Celie Tho-Biaz, Marvin K. White, Carmen Winant, and Yolanda Wisher.

For the next stop of “Ceremony for Revolutionary Seeds,” artists Idlewild Experiential and Nandi Jordan (Nandi) activate...
10/01/2026

For the next stop of “Ceremony for Revolutionary Seeds,” artists Idlewild Experiential and Nandi Jordan (Nandi) activate Fort Lee Historic Park through performance, ritual, and collective art-making that center the overlooked contributions of Black women and ask what histories deserve to shape our future.

📍 Fort Lee Historic Park (at the visitor center) – Fort Lee, New Jersey

🗓️ October 3 | 11am – 3pm
🎤Performance at 11:30am
🎨Artmaking Workshops at 12pm

Learn more about the activation and RSVP at the link in bio.

On September 29, 2021, Monument Lab released the “National Monument Audit,” offering a new way to understand who and wha...
09/29/2026

On September 29, 2021, Monument Lab released the “National Monument Audit,” offering a new way to understand who and what America chooses to commemorate, and what our monument landscape leaves out.

Five years later, researchers, educators, artists, civic leaders, and government agencies across the country have drawn on its findings, language, and methods to study their own landscapes, inform policy and planning, and imagine new possibilities for commemoration.

As we celebrate the audit anniversary, we reflect on old and new findings that have shaped our evolving landscape and the communities surrounding it, painting a picture of what’s remained and changed these last few years, and bring a new urgency to the work today. 

Join us in the coming year as we expand auditing across our work, developing new ways to document, investigate, and make sense of commemorative landscapes and the stories they carry, inviting participation and equipping others to reimagine the monuments of the future. 

Read more from our impact report at the link in bio.

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101 N Merion Ave
Bryn Mawr, PA
19010

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