AN AUGMENTED REALITY EXHIBITION
Download the Augmented Reality Mobile Application for iOS and Android
About Unsettling Grounds
Unsettling Grounds is a pilot platform showcasing experimental and monumental works by Black, Brown, Indigenous & rural artists. An augmented reality exhibition located in the Charlottesville Woolen Mills, Unsettling Grounds is an interactive storytelling tool. Using this app audiences will uncover hidden histories of lesser-known struggles for freedom. Monuments are missing; voices are silenced. Unsettling Grounds makes visible and audible the hidden past.
The project makes possible place-based artworks in the Charlottesville area through support from The National Endowment for the Arts, Albemarle County, Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, Virginia Humanities, The Memory Project at the University of Virginia’s Karsh Institute of Democracy.
The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative - Fiscal Sponsor
The Bridge builds, strengthens, and supports creative connections by providing financial resources, workspaces, and collaborative opportunities to empower the greater Charlottesville community.
Albemarle County - Primary Partner
Albemarle County was created in 1744 and occupies Monacan land. Home to 400 enslaved workers, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello annually attracts 500,000 visitors to the county. At the foot of Jefferson’s “Little Mountain,” sits the Broadway Street Corridor, 45 acres of industrially-zoned property bounded by downtown Charlottesville, a railroad, I-64, and the Rivanna River, and home to the Historic Charlottesville Woolen Mill.
Dream Syndicate - Software Developer
Dream Syndicate is a comprehensive experimental and interactive design company with over a decade of experience in AR and VR development.
Acknowledgements
Curated by Marisa Williamson
Fabricated by Dream Syndicate
Featuring work by Marie Tattiana Aqeel, Joumana Altallal, Myra Anderson, April Branham, Tanesha Hudson, Aidyn Mancenido, Alma Rayen Molina, Kweisi Morris, Adrienne Jacobson Oliver and Sandy Williams IV
With support from Amber Smith, Brandon Lee, and The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative
Marisa Williamson - Lead Artist
Williamson is a project-based artist who works in video, image-making, installation and performance around themes of history, race, feminism, and technology. She has produced work at Monticello, Storm King, The Met, Monument Lab, and the National Park Service. Williamson has received grants from Schlesinger Library and the Graham Foundation. She is an Assistant Professor of Studio Art at the University of Virginia. Learn more about her work at marisawilliamson.com.
Amber Smith - Project Administrator
Amber Smith is a small business owner who provides freelance administrative services. She has over fifteen years of administrative experience.
Brandon Lee - Project Assistant
Brandon Lee is an educator, facilitator, athletics official, musician, re-enactor, and historical interpreter from Williamsburg, now residing in Charlottesville. As a youth, he became highly invested in socio-emotional community efforts that began with family, church, and at Jamestown Settlement, Colonial Williamsburg, and Busch Gardens. This path led him to state athletics, music, and a scholarship to attend the University of Virginia. Now, a facilitator for UVA Medical Standardized Patients and the Center for Teaching Excellence ‘UVA Acts,’ he also serves as a teaching artist at The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center.
Marie Tattiana Aqeel
Marie Tattiana Aqeel comes from a supportive artistic family with a rich history of land-based living, activism and community engagement in and around Washington, D.C. She is dedicated to creating art with deep regard for its community service.
Joumana Altallal
Joumana Altallal is an Iraqi-Lebanese writer, researcher, and artist who was born in Baghdad, and grew up in Charlottesville. She is currently working on her first book, which focuses on American spectatorship and the commodification of violence in post-2003 Iraq.
Myra Anderson
Myra Anderson is a passionate spoken word poet, motivational speaker, social entrepreneur & Cville native. Since sharing her first personal spoken word poem in 2015, Myra has evolved into an artist who heavily embodies transparency and vulnerability. Her style is one of passion and soul, mixed with undeniable truth. Myra uses her spoken word as a platform to inspire others to find healing & freedom in speaking their truths. Myra has been the featured poet at numerous local and statewide events including Kwanzaa, Black History Programs, Juneteenth, and A Taste of Ghana. In 2020, Myra was awarded a grant to facilitate a Poetry workshop in Ghana.
April Branham
April Branham is a local Indigenous Artist from the Monacan Indian Nation in Amherst County VA. She uses her art as a form of therapy and strives to help increase BIPOC representation in our communities and the Art Industry. Several of her works are currently on display at the WVU Libraries, Marshall University, and Jamestown Settlement.
Tanesha Hudson
Tanesha Hudson is a community advocate, education advocate, lobbyist, organizer and documentarian (producer of A Legacy Unbroken and The Martinsville 7). Born and raised in Charlottesville, Virginia, Hudson focuses her artistry on centering the needs and voices of Black history and legacies.
Aidyn Mancenido
Aidȳn Mancenido is an artistically applied cultural anthropologist. She relies on a range of mediums, including performance, for embodied gateways to healing, and intellectual and community work. Wielding breath, movement and words, she explores the curatorial edges and emergent substance of wholeness and justice. Aidyn received her MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago, and her PhD in cultural anthropology from the University of Virginia. She currently consults in the areas of equity and racial justice, community engagement, and creative activism. Check out her work at www.amancenido.com
Alma Rayen Molina
Alma Rayen Molina is a Chilean artist, cultural manager, art engagement specialist, mom, and feminist. As a migrant, she has incorporated her own biography and outsider point of view into this project, discovering the local history and connecting it with worldwide political affairs. Learn more about her work at almarayen.com
Kweisi Morris
Kweisi Morris is a trained artist and former software designer and developer. He works in acrylic and mixed media and has always looked for ways to combine art and technology. His work is influenced by the experience of the Black Diaspora.
Adrienne Jacobson Oliver
An emergent independent curator and equity-minded cultural critic practicing deep thinking and radical joy, Adrienne believes our work as creators and citizens is to champion transformation and unsung stories. Across realms, she is a purpose-driven creative strategist, keen-eyed visual artist, and savvy project director leading collectives to dynamic outcomes. An MFA candidate at School of the Art Institute currently based in central Virginia, Adrienne seeks creative leadership roles, artistic development, and is available for freelance work.
Sandy Williams IV
Sandy Williams IV is an artist and educator whose work generates moments of communal catharsis. Their conceptual practice uses time itself as a material and aims to unfold the hidden legacies of public spaces. They are an Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Richmond. Learn more about their work at www.sandywilliamsiv.com
ADDITIONAL PARTNERS
The Memory Project at the University of Virginia’s Karsh Institute of Democracy
The Memory Project is advancing a program that includes creating anti-racist children’s literature and supporting Black artists-in-residence whose work addresses African American local culture.
Visible Records
Visible Records is an artist-run gallery and studio space located in Charlottesville. VR seeks to provide central Virginians with studio membership, exhibition & community organizing space, artist residencies, and programming, with a focus on compelling contemporary arts and building community power.
The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center
JS organized a Civil Rights Bus Tour in the summer of 2022. They also support the Mapping Cville project which visualizes Charlottesville’s history of racial covenants. These projects point to a broad community commitment to transform the narrative to be more accurate and inclusive.
Burley Middle School
Burley Middle School opened in 1951 and was named for a prominent African-American community leader, Jackson P. Burley. In 1967 the school officially desegregated and became known as the Jack Jouett Junior Annex, and was used to relieve the overpopulated Jack Jouett Junior High. In 1973 the school was renamed Jackson P. Burley, housing grades six and seven and in 1974 it became an Albemarle County middle school with grades six through eight.