Artists' COVID Memorial In Fairfax County To Honor COVID Victims, Front-Line Workers

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA — A memorial to those who died from COVID-19 and front-line workers who worked to lessen the pandemic's impacts will be created by artists in Fairfax County.

ArtsFairfax and the Fairfax County Arts Committee announced that artists Miriam Gusevich and Salvatore Pirrone will design a permanent COVID-19 memorial. The memorial will be located in front of the Herrity Building and Public Safety Headquarters at 12055 Government Center Parkway in Fairfax, VA and will honor the county's COVID-19 victims, county staff, nonprofits, health care providers and others.

"We need memorial spaces and artworks to help us appreciate the bonds we share as human beings," said Linda Sullivan, the president and CEO of ArtsFairfax. "With such artworks, engagement invites us to learn from our pain and redouble our efforts to lift up each other every day, not just in emergencies."

The artists' plan for the COVID-19 memorial calls for a tall, slender monument called "Circles of Memory." the monument would have a 27-foot tall hollow concrete cone and be divided in the center and topped with an oculus to view the sky. Visitors would be able to sit inside the structure and on nearby benches to view the memorial.

"Art does not cure, yet it can help us heal. Creativity can offer renewal; through it we can nurture faith in the future," said Gusevich.

Pirrone added, "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."

The project is expected to take months to complete. Public outreach will be planned to meet the artists and see artwork concepts.

The COVID-19 memorial stemmed from a Fairfax County Board of Supervisors board matter seeking a cost estimate and timeline for one on county or park authority-owned property.

Gusevich is a DC-based Cuban American environmental artist, architect, scholar, and professor who has built memorial projects like Chicago's “Jane Addams Memorial” with Louise Bourgeois and the “Cancer Survivor’s Garden” in Grant Park with Julie Gross; "Constellations" a memorial for Euro-Maidan in Kyiv, Ukraine; "Yahrzeit Candles," a memorial for the victims of Babyn - Yar; and the "Zenicka Kilim" in Bosnia-Herzegovina. A Holocaust memorial called "Remember Sambir" with Peter Miles is under construction in western Ukraine but paused due to the Russia-Ukraine war.

Salvatore Pirrone of Upper Marlboro, Maryland is an American artist, designer, and educator who has exhibited at Arlington Arts Center, Atlas Performing Arts Center, Cultural DC’s Mobile Art Gallery, Sandy Spring Museum, Transformer, Arlington Project for Affordable Housing, Maryland Art Place, Hillyer Gallery, and the Dittmar House at Marymount University. He is also a professor of design and art at Marymount University.