New Banners at Peace & Justice Plaza Recognize 'What We Hold Dear In This Community'

Located on the columns in front of the Old Post Office on Franklin Street, three new banners hang in the Peace & Justice Plaza. Designed by Triangle Artist Victoria Primicias, the orange, blue and yellow banners are representative of several state issues and symbols.

These include a raised fist for Black Lives Matter, a dove with an olive branch, and a postmark of 1964 when civil rights protests were happening in the plaza. The banners also depict Lady Justice with a scale, the North Carolina state flower and a rainbow for LGBTQ+ issues.

In response to last summer’s protests following the death of George Floyd, Chapel Hill resident and UNC student Emile Charles said he approached the Community Arts and Culture Department about the idea of a public art piece in the Peace & Justice Plaza.

“Community Arts and Culture Department is supposed to inspire creativity and celebrate community and not only does this piece inspire that, but also it’s celebrating and recognizing all the things that we do hold dear in this community and should hold dear to,” Charles said.

Steve Wright, the Public Art Coordinator of Chapel Hill, said he welcomed the idea.

“The trick for us was to figure out what form the art would take,” Wright said. “There was also COVID going on, so it wasn’t like we could do a piece of public art that would bring a crowd together all at once.”

Wright said they considered several art designs, but ideas were limited because the Old Post Office is a historical building. This means there are restrictions on what mediums can be used.

“You’re not allowed to put holes in it basically,” Wright said. “So that also created some interesting design challenges [on] what kind of art could be fixed to the building without actually putting holes in it. So the banners really met a lot of that.”

Although this is the first of the banners, it does not have to be the last. Wright said he hopes to be able to show a variety of artistic banners in the coming months.

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