The Park Avenue Armory Is Asking 100 Female Artists to Create New Works to Mark the 100th Anniversary of Women’s Suffrage in the US

The Armory is partnering with institutions across New York for the project.

Renee Cox, Chillin With Liberty (1998). Courtesy of the artist, ©Renee Cox.

The Park Avenue Armory in New York is marking the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment, which in 1920 granted women the right to vote in the US, by commissioning new works from 100 women artists.

The Upper East Side art and performance venue, which also hosts art fairs throughout the year, is partnering with other local institutions of all sizes, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, and the Laundromat Project in Harlem, to realize the project.

“As we look back upon this critical moment in our nation’s history, supporting the creation of new work by some of the most innovative women artists working today allows us to creatively explore where we’ve been, how far we’ve come, and the work that remains to be done,” Rebecca Robertson, the Armory’s founding president and executive producer, said in a statement.

The two-part, multidisciplinary initiative, dubbed “100 Years/100 Women,” will kick off on February 15 during the Armory’s annual “Culture in a Changing America” symposium. A full slate of performances, conversations, and salons will be held in the Armory’s period rooms.

A wide range of participants have come on board for the event, including actress Kathleen Turner; Beverly Guy-Sheftall, the founding director of the Women’s Research and Resource Center at Spelman College in Atlanta; Standing Rock activist Eryn Wise; curator Jessica Bell Brown of New York’s Gracie Mansion and the Baltimore Museum of Art; and artists Vinnie Bagwell, Zoë Buckman, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, and Makeba Rainey.

The February 15 event will culminate with the announcement of the names of the 100 artists commissioned to make new artworks. Their pieces will be unveiled at the Park Avenue Armory’s Drill Hall on May 16, with a celebration showcasing their work.

Other partnering institutions include the Apollo Theater, the Juilliard School, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Company, National Sawdust, and Urban Bush Women, plus several groups within New York University.


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