Hand-painted protest sign on painted canvas, top and bottom edges have hemmed cases which originally took bamboo poles.
Artwork Details
Medium
Acrylic, Cloth
Subject
Protesting the mountaintop-removal strip mining of Blair Mountain.
Context
Ephemera from the 5-day March on Blair Mountain protest march in southern West Virginia, 2011.
Collection
Modern Protest
Acquisition
Source (if not Accessioned)
Charles B Keeney
Made/Created
Date made
2011
Notes
Designed and printed as part of the Art Build at the march, which was organized by Coleman Smith. Printed with stencils, these signs existed in multiple and in several variations, all using the same color scheme.
Inscription/Signature/Marks
Transcription
SAVE BLAIR MOUNTAIN
Material/Technique
Stencil
Accessories
Accessory
Mount
Notes
original bamboo rods are missing and have been subsituted with pine rods in combination with monofilament for ceiling mounting
Location
Category
Exhibit
Notes
suspended from ceiling
Relationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Katey Lauer, Catherine Moore
Notes
above were part of core organizer group for 2011 march
Related Events
Event
March on Blair Mountain (2011)
Exhibition
The Mine Wars: Memory & Legacy
Interpretative Labels
Label
Save Blair Mountain, Save Our History protest signs
In 2011, activists from across the world came to West Virginia and participated in a week-long protest march to protect the Blair Mountain Battlefield from destruction by mountaintop removal. Coal companies had successfully lobbied to get the battlefield removed from the National Register of Historic Places in 2010, but after a locally led, grassroots effort, Blair Mountain was successfully relisted in 2018.
collections of Catherine Moore and Chuck Keeney
Research Notes
Research Type
Researcher
Person
Katey Lauer
Date
Dec 31, 2020
Notes
"I was with SOAW Puppetista Collective. I set up and ran the Art Build. Someone used my projector to line out the words, I cut the stencils, sized the banners, and figured out how to carry them on the bamboo. There was a young woman who volunteered to cut & sew. 2 or 3 of us actually did the screening. Truly a collaboration."
- from a Facebook message re: the banners by Coleman Smith, Art Build organizer for the March on Blair Mountain (2011).
SOAW here refers to the School of the Americas Watch
