Artist Talk with Lynda Andrews-Barry

Join Arlington Arts Center and artist Lynda Andrews-Barry for a discussion of Passage, the artist’s new site-specific installation created for AAC’s front lawn.

The artist talk will take place in person on AAC’s front lawn. Masks will be required and audience members will be asked to stand at a safe distance from one another.

Registration is recommended but not required. Attendees who do not register in advance will be asked to provide contact information to AAC at the event.

Arlington Arts Center and the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia are pleased to present Passage, a site-specific public artwork by artist Lynda Andrews-Barry. Passage includes 26 large-scale sculptures created from driftwood, rebar, metal hardware, and canvas sails. The sculptural forms are designed to evoke the ships that transported more than 12 million kidnapped and enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean between the 16th and 19th centuries. Inspired by artist Lynda Andrews-Barry’s own family history as the descendant of enslaved people, Passage also grapples with the legacy of Matthew Fontaine Maury.

Known as the “Pathfinder of the Seas” and the “Father of Oceanography,” Maury was a pioneer of naval navigation. A commander in the United States Navy, Maury resigned his post in 1861 to join the Confederate Navy. During the Civil War, Maury traveled to Europe, where he acquired ships for the Confederacy and lobbied on its behalf with European leaders. Arlington Arts Center’s historic building originally housed the Clarendon School, which was renamed the Maury School in 1944. The grounds surrounding the building continue to be known as Maury Park. Passage evokes the ships of the transatlantic slave trade as well as Maury’s connection with naval navigation and his role in the Confederacy.

Passage is the result of a unique partnership between AAC and the Community Foundation. The work was funded by the Foundation’s Ross-Roberts Fund for the Arts, and is undertaken in cooperation with Arlington Public Art.

Read more about Passage.

Registration for Lynda Andrews-Barry’s artist talk is recommended but not required. Attendees who do not register in advance will be asked to provide contact information to AAC at the event. Click on the link below to register.