Nonprofit Works To Preserve Offerings At George Floyd Square

Nonprofit Works To Preserve Offerings At George Floyd Square

Rise & Remember has saved thousands of tributes left at George Floyd Square.

MINNEAPOLIS — Saving the tributes at George Floyd Square wasn’t the plan.

“There were people whispering in my ear, ‘We have to tell our own story, we have to keep this,’ and so that’s what we started doing as neighbors is preserving the story,” said Jeanelle Austin, executive director of Rise & Remember.

Austin and her team of caretakers work out of a small classroom inside Pillsbury House + Theatre.

“To date, we have probably archived around 2,500 offerings,” Austin said.

However, not everything stored in this room has been cataloged.

“We’re guesstimating we have somewhere between 5,000-10,000 that’s in the space. There are more in George Floyd Square that we have not inventoried,” Austin said.

Austin never thought she would get into community art conservation, but it’s the job that was meant for her.

“We didn’t start this work to create an exhibition. Everything here is an extension of the memorial. It’s an extension of the protest. It’s an extension of the voices of the people,” Austin said.

She and her team save the offerings at George Floyd Square to preserve history.

“Racism has worked historically to misremember and disremember stories. It erases narrative, it changes narrative, it changes story. That then allows people to continue to perpetuate the harms and the evil that are done through racism throughout the centuries,” Austin said.

“In this moment when George Floyd was lynched, Black people, we understood if our stories were left to be told to the existing governing institutions, they would not be told accurately or correctly based off what we experienced.”

Austin said they save everything.

“Our memorial caretakers outdoors have very well-trained eyes to find the small things. Somebody else might see this as a piece of paper that you can just throw in the garbage. We find the smallest things and save them because everything was somebody’s message,” Austin said.

In her mind, every message has a place — even though she’s been told she can’t continue to save everything.

“Us striving to keep everybody’s story, to keep everybody’s voice, to keep everybody’s narrative is unprecedented,” Austin said.

When the offerings started to pile up at the square, Austin knew she needed to get in touch with Floyd’s family. She started to reach out to any family member she could find, but she only heard back from one person: Angela Harrelson, Floyd’s aunt.

“It brings back memories. These are the voices of the unheard,” said Harrelson as she looked at some of the preserved art. “They needed to say something, they needed to get it out there, and they did this through art.”

Harrelson said people have created artwork as a tribute to her nephew from all over the world.

“It’s emotional. It shows so much courage, kindness. It lets you know the world isn’t an ugly world. It lets you know there are a lot of people that care, a lot of people that spoke up, a lot of people that fought in this movement, and a lot of people in solidarity with us,” Harrelson said.

She said seeing everyone’s art brings back memories that have now become a part of history.

“It is so important because it is history. It’s history that cannot be erased, and we won’t let anyone erase it,” she said.

The Process

Preserving thousands of offerings can easily feel overwhelming, even in a small space.

Austin said it was important for them to be organized from the beginning. Since she didn’t know much about art conservation, she reached out to Midwest Arts Conservation, which showed them how to do it properly.

Since they have so many offerings, the caretakers fill out a digital inventory form to help keep track of what they have. Then it gets placed on a shelf.

“We had to come up with a system to actually figure out how we’re going to put everything there, and part of that is storing up,” Austin said.

Most of the offerings are stored on movable carts so they can manipulate the space to fit their needs.

“Every cart has a number, every shelf has a letter, every box has a number, and then every item inside the box has an accession number,” Austin said.

She said every accession number is dated, so it can be located.

They even have shelves on carts dedicated to items they haven’t had the chance to log into the inventory list. Austin said there’s a backlog because they don’t have enough people and financial support to do it faster.

“We move at the pace of justice. We move at the pace of what we’re able to do,” Austin said. “For us, it’s really about story preserving, the narrative, the power, and so we’re not trying to rush through it as much as we’re trying to honor what everyone offered as their offering.”

The offerings they store range from large murals to paper signs. Many of the items have rain and sun damage and don’t always come to them in one piece.

“The more time you spend with the offerings, the more you understand what’s missing and where they go, it’s like doing a giant jigsaw puzzle,” she said.

Austin said they can put things back together using a few different techniques. She said they can repair paper using Japanese paper. They heat wheat starch in the microwave, apply it to the Japanese paper, lay the wet piece of paper along the crease or rip, and then it will harden, binding the pieces together.

She said a group of students is currently repairing a broken ceramic offering and made a custom box for it.

“If we keep pieces and we find it later, we can still continue to add on until it’s fully restored,” she said.

Austin said the students are making a custom box to store piano keys.

“We’ve had three pianos in George Floyd Square. This is piano No. 1 that someone took the liberty to chop up … into pieces, and so we took what we could to preserve it, and these are those piano keys,” she said.

Austin said they also treat offerings with mold on them.

“If the piece had mold, we would take isopropyl and we spray it to deactivate the mold,” Austin said.

She said they then let it dry and wrap it in thick paper, until a professional art conservationist can perform mold remediation on the offering.

Austin said they have a few plant holders created with cardboard that they plan to treat. They’ve been crumpled up, but they’re still salvageable.

“We can treat these with a dehumidification chamber. Somebody would say, ‘Oh, this is garbage, throw it away,’ and I’m like ‘no,’” Austin said.

The makeshift dehumidification chamber they use allows cardboard to absorb the moisture and become soft enough to lay it back out to its original form.

“Just because you can’t see it now doesn’t mean you won’t ever be able to see it, and so that’s why we save these things,” she said.

Austin said the caretakers at the memorial determine what comes inside. She said safety is a big focus, so they’ll bring in things that are harmful to human health, like an offering that has developed mold.

Future plans

Austin said they’re displaying some of the offerings through traveling exhibits. She said they’re currently installing their eighth exhibit titled, “Through a Mother’s Eyes.”

“We contracted a community member to actually install the exhibit,” Austin said.

The curator, Mona Hunter, is installing it on the first floor of the Pillsbury House + Theatre and is selecting pieces that reflect the exhibit’s theme.

Austin said they’ve done one exhibit outside the state in Phoenix, Arizona, where they displayed 500 offerings.

She said they are collaborating with the Floyd family to build them a permanent memorial.

Austin said Rise & Remember is also a part of the RFQ process to take over the Peoples’ Way and wants to turn it into a memorial garden.

She said the ultimate goal is to have a museum. Austin said building a museum is costly, upward of $50 million, so they want to be intentional.

“You only get one shot to tell the story because if you get it wrong, the public will never forgive you, so we have to take our time to do it,” she said.

Harrelson said it will be important to have a place where people can learn what happened and how people banded together in the wake of injustice.

“For generations behind me, for them to see this artwork, and what happened, and why it became, and it’s so important for them to know that there were people here who fought,” she said.

Austin said it will be important for them to figure out how to hold the memories of people who were there, and how they’re going to teach people who weren’t there or even born.

Austin understands the public needs something now, which is why they are starting with a memorial garden. She wants to make sure they tell this story correctly, so she’s asking the public to be patient.

She said they will fundraise to build the museum and hope to find key partners to help them build it. Austin said Rise & Remember doesn’t receive government funds and doesn’t plan to seek any to build the museum. She said not every American supports their mission, so they want to make sure it’s solely funded by people who do.

SOURCE: KARE 11