Heritage Center outlines 'Swords into Plowshares' public-art proposal using melted Lee statue bronze

Andrea Douglas, executive director of the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, told the Charlottesville City Council on April 8 that the Swords into Plowshares project aims to convert bronze from the melted Robert E. Lee statue into new public artworks through a community-centered process. "What we're in is a public awareness campaign, that does have a fairly extensive community engagement purpose," Douglas said during the city’s special meeting.

Douglas said a February 2025 request for qualifications drew 32 responses and a four-person jury narrowed the field to three design teams. She described the finalists by their concepts: Walter Hood’s "Ring Shout," a set of 24 engraved steel rings tied to tree- and site-based gatherings; MAS (Model of Architecture Serving Society) with a baobab-tree-inspired centerpiece and a generative soundscape to create a downtown commons; and PUSH studio’s distributed approach of towers and pillars sited across several parks, incorporating community-made elements such as soils and engraved bronze.…