project overview
Orange mound Neighborhood signage | CORNER OF PARK AND aIRWAYS
Artist: Metal Musem
Upcoming benchmark/update: Final Design/Start of Fabrication
Next committee meeting date:
BACKGROUND
SITE SPECIFICS
Orange Mound is a historical neighborhood located in the southeastern part of Memphis. Founded in 1890, Orange Mound was the first neighborhood known to be built for and by former enslaved Black Americans. The space was once a 5,000 acre plantation that E.E. Meacham gained ownership over. Meachem made an unprecedented decision to sell land to Black Americans. Orange Mound is home to Melrose High School, which has a rich history of academic excellence, Olympians, and numerous professional athletics.
The Metal Museum is the only institution in the United States devoted exclusively to the advancement of the art and craft of fine metalwork and is located in Memphis, TN. This is achieved through exhibitions, collections, conservation, restoration, and consulting services, classes, internship opportunities, artist residencies and apprenticeships, research and onsite fabrication of artwork and architectural elements.
About UAC:
The UrbanArt Commission (UAC) works to create opportunities for artists and neighborhoods to connect and shape spaces through public art. Since 2002, UAC has managed the City of Memphis’s Percent-For-Art Program, which allocates funds annually to develop public art in connection to capital improvement projects. UAC also facilitates public art projects throughout the city working with various partners and clients to support artists and new experiences with art.
SCOPE OF WORK
The City of Memphis Planning Division, in partnership with UAC, commissioned Metal Museum to create neighborhood signage for Orange Mound. This project is a part of the Accelerate Memphis Initiative.
Sculpture location: Intersection of Park and Airways
SELECTION COMMITTEE
Becka Matthews- UAC artist
Felicia Wheeler- Tone (Assistant Director)
Lili Jackson- Orange Mound Arts Council
Angela Barksdale- Melrose Cultural Enrichment Center
Kendra Cobb-Department of Planning Division
Faria Urmy-Department of Planning Division
Trey Box-Archimania
Tamara Brown- Leadership Memphis
Hazell Jones- Orange Mound Arts Council
Jackie Holland- Progressive Women of Orange Mound
Mary Mitchell- Orange Mound Arts Council, official OM historian
Esther Cook Jones- Guns Down in Orange Mound
Latrina Macon-Norman- LMN Scholarship Foundation
Joyce Cox- City of Memphis- Housing & Community Develop.
Christina Crutchfield- City of Memphis- Division of Planning and Development, Project Manager (nonvoting)
