We Got the Power draws inspiration from Lysistrata by Aristophanes, and Spike Lee’s response to organized violence in Chi-Raq. It is the biggest edition to date, with 84 participating artists. Honoring the play and its era, over 100 pieces were made for the open call, all touching on themes of violence, war, sexual power, the patriarchy, and the power of women. These artworks will be installed as a continuous frieze throughout our gallery space, up until the end of the year.

The timeliness of 46 Women Pulling at the Threads of Social Discourse: This is Not a Doll’s House complimented the production of the play in Manhattan in the same year, the cinematic release of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, and the continual jeopardizing of women’s rights. The doll and dollhouse elements represented the reduction and objectification of women, their rights, and their experiencies in societies across the world. The 81 individual artworks made for this exhibition were suspended from the ceiling, installed in the center of the gallery, and covered the walls to symbolize the power of collective action.

Albeit smaller, 27 Women Pulling at the Threads of Social Discourse opened to an eager community in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood of Milwaukee, WI. The museum’s thought-provoking and eclectic program afforded this exhibition a Midwest flair, centering ideas of community care (or lack thereof), ageism in the feminine context, eco-feminist arguments, and the role of religion in American politics.

40 Women Pulling at the Threads of Social Discourse: A Room of Our Own contextualized Virginia Woolf’s essay, “A Room of One’s Own,” furthering an argument in favor of community-centered creative spaces. This immersive textile installation featured 83 pieces ranging from seating and lighting, to books and hanging gardens, as well as casts of one’s body parts and organs.

Considering that the original exhibition in Miami, FL. featured works by artists whose visual languages, mainly, were grounded in their cultural identities, and playing on the notion of mid-term elections, 42 Women Pulling at the Threads of Social Discourse expanded to include fiber works from artists in the Northeastern United States in an effort to both reflect on action in the context of time, while exploring the feminine experience and identity across space.

65 Women Pulling at the Threads of Social Discourse focused on a practice known as “femmage,” which refers to creative spheres historically associated with femininity: scrap-booking, sewing, knitting, patching, embroidery, and quilting. While men are participants in these crafts, it is the presumed silence and femininity of these activities that allowed the 98 quilt squares in the gallery to take on a subversive tone. Presenting them as one complete whole, it was the epitome of harmoniously unifying the different elements of life in a microcosmic manner.

For 40 Women Pulling at the Threads of Social Discourse, individual artworks were assembled using mixed media and the fiber arts to ignite positive social change during one of the tensest election years in the history of the United States. The exhibited works were presented as flags due to its use as a metaphor or symbol of solidarity with the women of the suffrage movement celebrated in this exhibition. “The voices of these artists, and women such as Bader Ginsburg, fighting the ‘good fight,’ are the foundation from which we can all aspire, are the present day warriors still carrying the torch first lit over one hundred years ago.”

Applying Marxist literary criticism to textiles, Eight Women Pulling at the Threads of Social Discourse presented reflections of society—its tendencies, failings, and structure—as mirrors of the social institutions and practices from which the works evolve. Together, the 41 works in the exhibition highlighted how notions of class and social structure alienate the individual, thus stimulating the ever present modern phenomenon of “angst,” and what Sartre referred to as “nausea.”