Fall 2014

Made in Church Hill

A Community Dialogue and Exhibition

Made in Church Hill was a collaborative effort between students from University of Richmond, Virginia Commonwealth University and Church Hill Academy who came together to study gentrification in a historically African-American (and Jewish) neighborhood. These students from three very different educational settings learned about the nuances of Richmond’s history together through neighborhood sound walks, oral history interviews, photography sessions, and museum study trips—culminating in an exhibition that displayed photography and interviews at The Valentine museum.

Project Details

Exhibition

Press

A Church Hill Resident Interviewee

VCU, CHAT & UR Students took a trip to The Valentine museum in downtown Richmond.

Students who collaborated on this project.

Collaboration

Our partners in this project included students at the Church Hill Academy, a small faith-based school where several of our former students worked. We also collaborated with faculty and students in two classes at Virginia Commonwealth University—a museum studies course taught by Traci Garland and a photography course taught by Michael Lease, as well as with sound artist Vaughn Garland, and curator Meg Hughes at The Valentine museum.

Community Conversation

As part of our work on the exhibition, we hosted a community dialogue, moderated by Hope in the Cities’ Cricket White and Rev. Tee Turner, featuring long-time Church Hill residents and the owners of new businesses in the neighborhood. This was the first time such a conversation had taken place in Church Hill, and the standing-room-only crowd was divided between mainly older Black residents and young, tattooed white recent arrivals. After the dialogue ended, the two of us were cornered by a group of community leaders, who wanted to know if this was just another hit-and-run ethnographic project by the wealthy university in the suburbs. On the spot, we committed to spending three more years working in Church Hill, and this led to our long-term partnership with the Armstrong Leadership Program, at one of the oldest Black high schools in the nation.

History Harvest & Interviews

Under the guidance of University of Richmond Boatwright Library head archivist Lynda Kachurek, we hosted a “history harvest,” to which we invited residents to come with objects that represented Church Hill to them, and to be interviewed and photographed. We had picked the Family Resource Center as our site, since it served as a gathering place and food and clothing distribution center for the neighborhood. However, we did not take into account its proximity to the artisanal bakery Sub Rosa, whose high prices had been a point of contention at the community dialogue. It turned out that many of the bakery’s patrons were eager to share their feelings about the neighborhood, but that fewer long-time Church Hill residents showed up.

We conducted oral history interviews with a wide range of Church Hill residents. One of our most rewarding experiences was hosting two group oral histories with congregants at Fourth Baptist Church. Participants ranged in age from fifty-something to ninety-two-year-old Ila Booker, who had been the beloved second-grade teacher of many of those present.

Download Interview Questions +

Exhibition

The exhibition brought to light the history and current challenges facing Church Hill from the perspective of its residents. It featured color photographic portraits by Michael Lease, our oral history text panels, which were printed on tear-off sheets beneath each portrait, and a multi-channel sound piece by artist Vaughn W. Garland with portions of interviews conducted by UR students; sound poems written and performed by CHAT students; and audio clips from field recordings taken in Church Hill. Museum visitors were invited to assemble their own handmade books at a station in the center of the gallery.