The National Women’s Hall of Fame is pleased to invite artists to submit your fiber-forward handwork to be included in a special exhibition this summer.
Download exhibition and submission instructions here.
The exhibition Crafting Democracy: Fiber Arts and Activism debuted in Rochester, New York – home to Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass – along with an eponymous catalogue (RIT Press, 2019). Works by the 30 artists explored how handwork probes the vulnerabilities of citizenship status, while also works toward positive social change. Over the following two years, the exhibit traveled to four additional venues in the Northeast U.S., realizing opportunities for community, conversation, and critique.
Now, the exhibition is back in an entirely new form – a “redux” that seeks to co-craft democracy. Curators Juilee Decker and Hinda Mandell, in reviving their show concept, are expanding the notion of democracy to the exhibition form itself: all work that is submitted to the show will be accepted and displayed.*
Co-Crafting Democracy: Fiber Arts and Activism
Open call for fiber-based work
National Women’s Hall of Women
Seneca Falls, New York
2024
Parallel exhibit in conjunction with Voices and Votes: Democracy in Action, organized by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Co-Crafting Democracy: Fiber Arts and Activism will be unveiled in July 2024 at the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York, as a parallel exhibit in conjunction with Voices and Votes: Democracy in Action organized by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. The National Women’s Hall of Fame is located in the historic Seneca Knitting Mill of 1844. The Mill’s original two owners signed their name to the “Signatures to the Declaration of Sentiments” at the 1848 Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York. The Knitting Mill was active until 1999, and provided union wages to the women who worked there, known for their production of socks and hosiery.
The National Women’s Hall of Fame is the nation’s first and oldest nonprofit organization and museum dedicated to honoring and celebrating the achievements of distinguished American women. In August 2020, the National Women’s Hall of Fame moved into the 1844 Seneca Knitting Mill, where it uses the stories of its 302 Inductees to inspire and engage all who visit.
Please consider the following guidelines to have your work included in Co-Crafting Democracy: Fiber Arts and Activism:
- The dominant medium of the work must be fiber-based
- Work must have been created since 2020
- Only one work may be submitted by an artist
- Work must not exceed the size of a18 inches X 48 inches
- Work must clearly express, through label copy or the physical work itself, themes relating to “co-crafting Democracy”
- Work must be received by June 14 by either mailing the work to the National Women’s Hall of Fame (Attention: Nellie Ludemann, 1 Canal Street, PO Box 335, Seneca Falls, NY), or dropped off at that location by the artist on June 14.
- Artists must include a pre-paid return shipping label if they cannot retrieve their work in person, following the conclusion of the exhibition
- Work must be available for the entirety of the exhibition, July 12 until August 23, 2024
- Work must be retrieved by the artist on September 3, 2024, or it will be returned to the artist via mail when return shipping is pre-paid
- People of all backgrounds are invited to submit fiber-based work, but they must currently reside in the U.S.
How to submit your work:
- By June 14, mail work to: Attention: Nellie Ludemann, 1 Canal Street, PO Box 335, Seneca Falls, NY
- Also by June 14, email Juilee Decker (jdgsh@rit.edu, Professor, Museum Studies, RIT) and Hinda Mandell (hbmgpt@rit.du, Professor, School of Communication, RIT), the following requirements:
- a high-res photo of the work that has been mailed or that will be dropped off at the National Women’s Hall of Fame
- link to the artist’s website or social media
- submission up to 150 words of label copy explaining the work within the thematic parameters of “co-crafting Democracy”
Note: submission of the work and its required elements grants the exhibition’s curators the right to use the materials in promoting the show.
We look forward to admiring the creative and tactile ways in which you “co-craft Democracy!” Questions can be directed to both Juilee Decker (jdgsh@rit.edu ) and Hinda Mandell (hbmgpt@rit.edu).
*Exhibition curators Juilee Decker and Hinda Mandell reserve the right to exclude submissions that are obscene or incendiary.
Exhibition Logo design by Marnie Soom, RIT Press.