Visitors to Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls can now enjoy a new, temporary art exhibit. Entitled “Pictures of Equality,” this art installation was created in partnership with the International Fiber Collaborative, which worked with students and teachers to create art in response to the question, “What does it mean to be equal?” Nearly 500 students from 20 schools in New York, Colorado, Wyoming, North Carolina, Montana, and Illinois created art for this exhibit. The exhibit will be on display in the visitor center gallery through April 30 and is free and open to the public.
“The work these talented students created is inspiring,” stated Women’s Rights National Historical Park Acting Superintendent Andrea DeKoter. “As a site dedicated to the struggle for women’s equality, it’s especially fitting that we can display artistic pieces exploring what this history and its legacy mean to young people from across the country.”
Women’s Rights National Historical Park tells the story of the 1848 First Woman’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, where women and men first publicly demanded that women should have the right to vote. The Declaration of Independence says “All men are created equal,” but the participants at the First Woman’s Rights Convention declared “All men and women are created equal.” Seventy-two years later, in August 1920, the 19th Amendment was ratified and women received the right to vote nationally. Even then, black women, Native Americans, and immigrants had a difficult time voting in some states. Students used art to address this issue and to express, “What does equality look like? What would the world look like if everyone were equal?”
The International Fiber Collaborative (IFC) was founded in 2008 as a 501(c)(3) that develops community programs that create collaborative opportunities in art and civic engagement. IFC promotes programs that link learning and creativity in the arts to science, math, engineering, and the humanities.
To learn more about exhibits, programs and events available at the park, visit www.nps.gov/wori or www.Facebook.com/womensrightsnps, or call the park at 315-568-0024.
