Chillin’ with Lady Liberty, Renee Cox, 1998. Courtesy Renee Cox
100 Women Artists and Cultural Creators Respond to Centennial of the 19th Amendment and 100 Years of Women’s Suffrage in America
The cross-disciplinary group of participants in the 100 Years | 100 Women initiative includes mulitple members of the NYU community – inlcuding Deborah Willis, Lorie Novak, Zalika Azim (Tisch BFA '14), Rose DeSiano (Tisch BFA '01), Karen Finley, and Yelaine Rodriguez (Museum Studies MFA '21)
Commissioned by Park Avenue Armory with National Black Theatre and 9 Partner Cultural Institutions––including NYU Tisch Department of Photography & Imaging, NYU Office of Global Inclusion and Diversity, and the NYU Institute of African American Affairs and Black Visual Culture – the new works were launched online on August 18 at a public viewing party.
On August 18, marking the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, Park Avenue Armory and lead partner National Black Theatre, together with nine other New York City cultural institutions, unveiled the next phase of the 100 Years | 100 Women initiative. The project was launched in February 2020 with a day-long symposium and the announcement of the 100 commissioned artists and cultural creators who were invited to respond to and interrogate the complex legacy of women’s suffrage through their creative practices. In the time since, the creation of new works by the participants— including Zoë Buckman, Staceyann Chin, NYU Tisch professor Karen Finley, Ebony Noelle Golden, Andrea Jenkins, Meshell Ndegeocello, Toshi Reagon, Martha Redbone, Carrie Mae Weems, and Chair of the NYU Tisch Department of Photography & Imaging Deborah Willis—has been shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing, #BlackLivesMatter, and a divisive election season. In lieu of the in-person celebration of the commissions that was planned for the spring, the Armory hosted an online launch party streamed on YouTube on August 18 at 2pm, which featured a sneak peek at select commissioned works, remarks by artists and partner organizations, and appearances by special guests including Maya Wiley, Susan Herman, Jari Jones, Tantoo Cardinal, Rita Dove, Catherine Gray, and the Kasibahagua Taíno Cultural Society. The event also included the premiere of a short film by Armory/Museum of the Moving Image-commissioned filmmaker Shola Lynch documenting the inspirations and processes behind the participants’ contributions, as well as the ways in which the issues of the current moment have informed their work.
The Armory has publicly debuted an interactive digital archive of the initiative that provides access for audiences to explore each participant's profile and creative work, as well as additional resources: 100years100women.net. On this website, audiences are able to view all the projects created for the initiative.
The project created by NYU is a virtual exhibition of the commissioned pieces entitled Women Creating Nouns, Not Adjectives: Votes for Women. It was curated by DPI chair Deborah Willis, and organized by Lisa Coleman (SVP, Global Inclusion and Strategic Innovation), Ellyn Toscano (Senior Director Programming, Partnerships and Community Engagement, New York University, Brooklyn), and Jaïra Placide (Associate Director, Institute of African American Affairs & Center for Black Visual Culture).
The artists commissioned by NYU are:
Sama Alshaibi
Zalika Azim
Zoë Buckman / Michi Jigarjian
Renee Cox
Jennifer Ling Datchuk
Rose DeSiano
Nekisha Durrett
Adama Delphine Fawundu
Tsedaye Makonnen
Lorie Novak
Yelaine Rodriguez
Deborah Willis
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