How do we remember history that contends with the ideals of the present? This is one of the many issues citizens, historians, and lawmakers face in regards to monuments tied to slavery and colonialism. Since the reckoning that followed the George Floyd murder in 2020, roughly 80 Confederate monuments were either taken down or renamed in the U.S., while a similar number of statues were toppled or reviewed across the pond in the U.K. Lawmakers in both nations have proposed guidelines that will grapple how public works of art are to be dealt with in the future. <\/p>\n
Entitled “Retain and Explain”, the British government laid out a toolkit on how custodians can handle monuments that have been called for removal. There is essentially a three-outcome guideline in place \u2014 Outcome A will largely close a case if there is no evidence to have a statue removed or renamed. Whereas, in Outcome B, experts will be advised to gather more research surrounding these claims by consulting stakeholders and the community in question. If a public work is deemed “retainable”, added context will be needed to explain its history; while in Outcome C, custodians will be prompted to relocate the work altogether.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want all our cultural institutions to resist being driven by any politics or agenda and to use their assets to educate and inform rather than to seek to erase the parts of our history that we are uncomfortable with,\u201d noted the U.K.\u2019s culture secretary Lucy Frazer in a statement.