DETAILS

We invite you to the Wallace Center to celebrate the opening of our new Artist Residency/Visitor Center. We wish to thank our institutional and individual donors for making this possible. Immediately following, artist Elizabeth M. Webb and poet Salaam Webb will lead the dedication of their sculpture "With Love, For Grief." This work grew from over a year of interviews with descendants.Two major themes emerged from these conversations: a desire for a formal permanent acknowledgment of the names of those enslaved on the Wallace Plantation, and a desire for educational scholarships for the larger Harpersville/Vincent community. The sculpture is composed of the four original poplar columns that once supported the portico of the Wallace House. These columns are said to have held the signatures of attendees of house parties in the early 1900s. Though these names are long erased, the story remains. "For Love, With Grief" reclaims this story to center the presence of the Black descendant community and their ancestors. Descendants signed their own names at the 2023 Homecoming onto the aluminum poured at the historic Sloss Furnance to fill the rotten areas. Then, on Martin Luther King weekend, they added the names of enslaved ancestors on a separate column. An artist talk and poetic performance will highlight the event.