RICHMOND — People gathered to play music, grill hamburgers and snap photos of the 60-foot monument to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee on Tuesday evening as state officials made preparations to take the statue down from its pedestal Wednesday morning.

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       Across town, first lady Pamela Northam joined community members and local artists to prepare a new time capsule that will be placed in the base of the monument once the figure is removed.

       Virginia Supreme Court clears way for Lee statue in Richmond to come down

       “What a momentous occasion to be here today,” Northam said before helping to pack items into a stainless steel box that will replace a time capsule installed under Lee when the monument was erected more than 130 years ago.

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       The statue, which soared over one of the grandest residential boulevards in the South, had long stood as the symbol of the former capital of the Confederacy. Last summer its iconic status made it the centerpiece of social justice protests triggered by the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. When Northam called for its removal in June 2020 at the height of the protests, a handful of residents challenged him in a legal case that went all the way to the Supreme Court of Virginia, which ruled unanimously in Northam’s favor last week,

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       While the original time capsule was designed to honor the Confederacy, the new collection of artifacts — gathered over the summer from residents around the state — “reflects the seismic events of the last year and a half,” Northam said.

       That includes the social justice protests of last summer that led Gov. Ralph Northam (D) to order the Lee statue removed from state-owned land on Monument Avenue, as well as the coronavirus pandemic that shut down the state’s economy and social life.

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       Among the items chosen by a panel of artists, historians and community leaders: an empty vial of coronavirus vaccine, music and poetry from a diverse collection of Virginia artists, art and signs gathered from last summer’s street protests, and an iconic photograph of a young African American ballerina standing on the steps of the graffiti-covered Lee pedestal.

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       “I honestly didn’t expect it .？.？. to reach as many people as it did,” said Marcus Ingram, the local photographer who captured the image, which drew worldwide attention last year on social media.

       Artist Paul DiPasquale, who created the 12-by-12-by-6-inch box along with fellow artist Tom Chenoweth, invited Northam and people who donated the artifacts to carefully place them into the time capsule.

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       “We — all of us — are the new Virginia,” DiPasquale said before sealing the box with silicone and metal screws.

       State officials plan to place the time capsule in the stone base of the monument on Thursday after removing the one that is believed to be buried there now. The fate of the 40-foot pedestal remains uncertain; a commission tasked with reimagining the Monument Avenue corridor will determine what to do with the site in the coming year.

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       As anticipation built Tuesday afternoon, the grassy medians along Monument Avenue took on the festive air that had enveloped the great traffic circle around the statue during last year’s season of protest.

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       Cars buzzed around the monument, and drivers honked, waved and called out to the several dozen people gathered near a canopy and sizzling barbecue grill. Music played, and someone kept rhythm on a plastic drum.

       Arthur Brill, an artist from Ashland, Va., watched as people posed for pictures next to his sculpture of a hand flashing a peace sign atop a column modeled after those at the U.S. Capitol. Like the base of the Lee statue, Brill’s work was covered with names and colorful messages — some written by family members of Black Virginians killed by police.

       “Last summer I saw the world sort of imploding around me and I felt I needed to do something,” said Brill, who is White.

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       As he spoke, Isaiah Robinson, 24, who is Black, posed for a photo next to the peace statue, with Lee in the background. He had met his wife — Deja Spicely, 21 — at last summer’s protest rallies.

       Spicely, who is Black and from nearby Hopewell, said she had come to Easter parades along Monument Avenue as a child without realizing the significance of Lee and the other four Confederate statues along the grand thoroughfare. The city took the others down last year, so Lee is the last one remaining.

       Now that she realizes what those statues represented, Spicely said, she feels angry that she ignored them for so long. With Lee about to come down, she said, “I’m very excited.”

       State and law enforcement officials began blocking off roads around the statue after 6 p.m. in preparation for the statue’s removal Wednesday morning, which will begin around 8 a.m. The process could take several hours and can be viewed via live stream on several state websites, including on Northam’s Facebook page and at his Twitter feed, @GovernorVA.