Professional Practice
Memorial to the Enslaved at James Madison's Montpelier
Date: 3/20/2024 - 4/20/2024
Description:
The Montpelier Descendants Committee (“MDC”) and The Montpelier Foundation (“TMF”) are seeking letters of interest and supporting materials from qualified landscape architects, architects, and/or artists, as individuals or in teams, to develop a design for a memorial at the Montpelier Burial Ground of the Enslaved at Montpelier in Orange, Virginia. The memorial will honor those who were enslaved at James Madison’s Montpelier, and surrounding plantations owned by the Madison family and others.
The Montpelier memorial to the enslaved will honor the lives and contributions of the approximately 300 people who were enslaved at James Madison’s Montpelier and an unknown number who were enslaved at the surrounding plantations owned by the Madisons and others. The chosen firm will design the memorial with significant engagement and contributions from the Montpelier Descendants Committee from August 15, 2024, through completion of the project. The design process must include the MDC Memorialization Committee in design charrettes and the generation of ideas. The memorial will be incorporated into the James Madison’s Montpelier landscape on a site that includes the Burial Ground of the Enslaved, a four-acre woodlot in the center of the property.
The MDC and TMF have budgeted $3,400,000 from a Mellon Foundation grant to fund the design, materials, and construction of the memorial.