Fairfax County moves forward with permanent COVID-19 Memorial
FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va - Fairfax County selects artist team to create a permanent COVID-19 Memorial to honor local victims of the pandemic and the courage of frontline health care workers, community heroes and first responders in the County.
The memorial will be located in front of the Herrity Building and Public Safety Headquarters in Fairfax.
"This scale of disease and its impact to the communities of Fairfax County, as well as the impact to a County workforce that responded to the public health emergency, are worthy of memorialization," ArtsFairfax shared in a release.
ArtsFairfax and the Fairfax County Arts Committee selected Miriam Gusevich and Salvatore Pirrone as the artist team to bring this vision to life.
"Art does not cure, yet it can help us heal. Creativity can offer renewal; through it we can nurture faith in the future," says Gusevich. "We hope to provide an environment that will bring people together. The memorial strives to be a place of reverence for the lives lost and the people who honor them," says Pirrone.
The monument will be a 27-foot tall hollow concrete cone, divided by a break in the center and topped with an oculus allowing a sky view. Visitors will be able to enter the structure and sit inside and on the surrounding benches entitled "Circles of Memory."
No word on when the monument will be up, but the project will require several months to complete.