Our Voices are Necessary Advocacy Campaign was a success!
You helped elevate the voices of Southside’s Young Leaders! We can’t say thank you enough!
By reaching out to your city council members, neighbors, and fellow Richmonders, you helped ARCA's young leaders receive the work in street permits from the city!! We did it! As of the week of August 23rd, the city approved the permits and we are able to install the street art murals in three communities on the Southside. Your advocacy also helped to open the door for other public art murals to be implemented in the greater Richmond community. This is a reminder that our voices are critical for the change that we want to see happen in the community. In celebration, we’re inviting you to participate in ARCA’s Pop-Up Paint Down Saturdays by registering for one of the shifts below at the time that is most convenient for you! In addition, by registering to participate you will be entered into the gift card raffles to celebrate this big win for the Southside community.
September 18th - 12th & Bainbridge
Shift One: 9:00 am to 11:30 am
Shift Two: 12:00 pm to 2:30 pm
September 25th - Harwood St & Minefee St
Shift One: 9:00 am to 11:30 am
Shift Two: 12:00 pm to 2:30 pm
October 2nd - Davee Rd & Ruffin Rd
Shift One: 9:00 am to 11:30 am
Shift Two: 12:00 pm to 2:30 pm
Advocacy Campaign:
Southside Richmond youth deserve the same opportunities and access to safe, beautiful public spaces just as their counterparts have in other areas of the city. It is necessary for their voices to be heard when decisions are being made about their community.
That’s why we invite you to join Our Voices Are Necessary advocacy campaign to ensure the voices of young people in the ARCA program are heard and they are able to beautify their community through public art!
The Ask: Email and/or call Mayor Stoney and your City Council Representatives and their Aids
Mayor Stoney: RVAMayor@richmondgov.com 804-646-7970
5th District Councilperson Lynch: stephanie.lynch@richmondgov.com; amy.robins@richmondgov.com / 804.646.5724
6th District: Councilperson Robertson: Ellen.Robertson@richmondgov.com; tavares.floyd@richmondgov.com / 804.646.7964
8th District: Councilperson Trammell: Reva.Trammell@richmondgov.com; richard.bishop@richmondgov.com / 804.646.6591
9th District: Councilperson Jones: michael.jones@richmondgov.com; Summer.Morris@richmondgov.com / 804.646.2779
How: 1) Call and/or 2) Copy/Paste the below text into an email
Call Script (feel free to add your own perspective):
Hello, (insert council person name)
My name is ____ and I am a resident of the (district #) District. I am asking you, as my city council representative, to both
Help the Arts, Racial Reconciliation, and Civic Advocacy also known as the ARCA program gain permits for Southside art murals that will take place at the intersections of Minefee and Harwood and Ruffin Rd and Davee Rd by August 18th.
Prioritize the development of an equitable and transparent process for approving public art that clarifies the role of the Art Commission and Department of Public Works, and includes people who have been historically marginalized and are directly impacted in decision making.
I am also asking for your commitment to listen when residents speak up about what they want to see in their communities.
This is what the young leaders with the ARCA program have done. They are leading positive change on the Southside and deserve to be heard by their city representatives. Please help us more the permitting process forward and include our voices in developing the new process.
Email Script (feel free to add your own thoughts):
Dear Honorable Councilperson (insert name),
My name is ____ and I am a resident of the (district #) District. I am asking you, as my city council representative, to:
Help the Arts, Racial Reconciliation, and Civic Advocacy program, also known as the ARCA, gain permits for Southside art murals by August 18th that will take place at the intersections of Minefee and Harwood and Ruffin Rd and Davee Rd.
Prioritize the development of an equitable and transparent process for approving public art that clarifies the role of the Art Commission and Department of Public Works, and includes people who have been historically marginalized and are directly impacted in decision making.
Young Leaders are leading positive change on the Southside and deserve to be heard by their city representatives. Now that City Council adopted adopted R039 declaring racism a public health issue, and committed to “support community efforts to amplify issues of racism and engage actively and authentically with underserved communities” we expect you to listen when residents speak up about what they want to see in their communities. Currently, this declaration feels inauthentic. Stalling permits and denying young Black and Latine leaders the opportunity to beautify their community on their own terms upholds the status quo over imagining a more equitable future. This confusing and unclear process demonstrates how hard young people and communities have to work to be heard by the City and have their vision for their community respected and supported.
Additional Context:
ARCA is a community-rooted program developed by Southside community members and young leaders in 2019. It is a project of Virginia Community Voice. The mission of ARCA is to bring together Latino/a youth and Black youth along the Richmond Highway Corridor to:
deepen relationships across racial and ethnic lines
learn to and advocate for community projects
design and create street murals
Over the last two years, youth have worked with local artists Hamilton Glass and Alfonso Perez Acosta to make the community more beautiful and safer through public art. The program paused in 2020, and began again this year. ARCA young leaders' art designs were approved in 2019 by the Public Arts Commission, the City Attorney's office, and the Department of Public Works. Young leaders also presented this project to Mayor Stoney in 2019 and were excited to get started again this spring.
In April 2021 the Arts Commission said the designs did not need to be reapproved. This was false; the city halted the permits and is now requiring reapproval. There are just a few weeks left in the program and you have not responded to young leaders or community members when we previously reached out for assistance. If the permits are not approved by Wednesday, August 18th ARCA young leaders will have to delay their street art project for another year.
We ask that you support Southside’s young leaders by advocating for the approval of the permits and developing a more equitable process for approving public art.
Thank you for your support and action.
Respectfully,
(Your Name)
Arca & Situation background:
In 2019 ARCA participants painted their first mural at 12th and Bainbridge to slow traffic and bring attention to pedestrian and bicycle safety. This evidence-based approach worked! Residents shared that traffic visibly slowed through the intersections, and the city even installed speed bumps along the road, further slowing traffic. Young leaders’ and community members’ vision and action brought these positive changes to their community, and they shared they never thought they could have beautiful art like this in their neighborhoods.
Young leaders were excited to continue this program in 2021, but are frustrated with the city’s lack of transparency and stalling their work.
They shared, “We have the right to express ourselves and should be given the space to do so.”
Digging deeper, we learned that the city was approached with requests to paint a Black Lives Matter mural earlier this year. Given the controversy over the painting of a similar mural in DC in 2020, the city decided to pause approval of any public street art until they could develop a new process, one that avoids controversy or infringement on free speech.
Here we are, just a few weeks left in the program, with no permits, caught in an inequitable bureaucratic process, the City too afraid to issue permits because our youth-designed traffic calming art might offend someone. The proposed murals are of flowers, bikes, and the words “community” and “art”. Our City Council representatives have not responded to our previous requests for help with clear direction forward.
Racism as Public Health Issue
On July 26, 2021, City Council passed Resolution R039 declaring racism as a public health issue in the city of Richmond. The city committed to “support community efforts to amplify issues of racism and engage actively and authentically with underserved communities.”
However, as this issue with the ARCA project demonstrates, the city is not actively engaging with this historically underserved community.
Stalling the permits and denying young Black and Latine/x leaders the opportunity to improve their community on their own terms demonstrates a preference for upholding the status quo over imagining a more equitable future.
This permitting process is an example of how the city prioritizes white comfort in their policies and procedures, which ultimately impacts Black and Brown communities negatively.
This lack of courage to have the difficult conversations about racism and listen to the Southside community, indicates the city is not ready to live up to the values made in Resolution R039.
This is unacceptable. As southside residents, we deserve to have access to public art in our community.
We believe that our young leaders deserve access to programming, like art programs and public spaces that display representative art, that are abundantly available in other parts of the city.
ARCA’s 2019 Mural
Installed at 12th & Bainbridge