 – Opening on Friday, July 31, 2020 at the Frist Art Museum, “We Count: First-Time Voters” features the work of five local artists inspired by the 100th…){kind=link}
NASHVILLE, TN (AAPJ) – Opening on Friday, July 31, 2020 at the Frist Art Museum, “We Count: First-Time Voters” features the work of five local artists inspired by the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment.
Although initially intended to be presented in a gallery, the show was first introduced online at: www.fristartmuseum.org/wecount while the museum was temporarily closed because of COVID-19. ‘We Count’ will still can be viewed online, but this pioneer exhibition goes on view in the Conte Community Arts Gallery through January 3, 2021.
“As this is our first-ever completely digital exhibition, we were thrilled with the experience and the new expanded audiences we were able to reach virtually, approximately 9,000 page views to date,” said Frist Art Museum assistant director for community engagement and exhibition curator Shaun Giles. “With the reopening of our building, we are now very excited to be able to install the works in our galleries as we had originally planned. In person, visitors will be able to appreciate new facets and details in the works, many of which are intricately designed and warrant close looking.”
The exhibition brings forth the history and challenges of voting in the United States and the first voting experiences of a diverse group of Nashvillians. Artists, Beizar Aradini, M Kelley, Jerry Bedor Phillips, Thaxton Waters II and Donna Woodley connected with individuals and community groups across Nashville to learn about their experiences, and then created visual representations of those stories, through drawing, painting, printing, stitching and other techniques.
“Some topics that emerged from the conversations were disenfranchisement, awareness of everyday inequities, the challenges of the immigration and citizenship process, and the restoration of voting rights,” said Frist Art Museum assistant director for community engagement and exhibition curator Shaun Giles. “The resulting works of art embody both individual and collective insights on civic engagement and responsibility, as well as the systemic hurdles that prevent people from participating in our democracy.”
The 19th Amendment guarantees and protects women’s right to vote, is especially significant to Tennessee, as it was the 36th state to pass the amendment, completing the two-thirds majority needed to make it the law of the land. However, Tennessee is now ranked 49th in voter turnout and 45th in voter registration.
“On top of all of our current challenges, 2020 contains a confluence of events in our country, with the census and the presidential election,” said Anne Henderson, Frist Art Museum director of education and engagement. “Through this exhibition, we hope to encourage visitors to exercise their constitutional right to vote and to deepen understanding of historic and ongoing struggles for equal voting rights.”
Other artist’s works address the struggles to gain or regain the right to vote. Beizar Aradini’s reflection on the immigrant experience of gaining citizenship is told through an embroidered poem and portrait mimicking an ID photo.
In colored pencil drawings, Jerry Bedor Phillips portrays four members of the Nashville community who represent different backgrounds but are all engaged voting citizens concerned for the future and how they can help shape it.
Donna Woodley celebrates a passionate and tireless voter’s advocate in North Nashville whom she got to know, paying tribute to her life in a painting.
For more information on this exhibit’s programming, see: www.fristartmuseum.org