Girls That Create
Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on InstagramFollow Us on PinterestFollow Us on YouTube
  • Parenting Resources
    • Teens
    • Pre-Teen
    • Elementary
    • Preschool
    • Toddler
    • Baby
  • Creator Spotlights
  • Inspiration
  • Explore
  • Support Us
  • Store
  • About Us
    • Collaborations and Press
    • Job Opportunities
    • Privacy Policy
Her Flag Celebrates 100 Years of Women’s Suffrage

Her Flag Celebrates 100 Years of Women’s Suffrage

When visual artist Marilyn Artus realized 2020 marked the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment, she knew something both extraordinary and large-scale needed to happen. From the mind of this self-proclaimed “suffrage era nerd” came Her Flag, a nationwide art and travel project that celebrates women winning the right to vote and recognizes the 72-year struggle to make it happen.

Star-Spangled Banner

When she was fourteen years old, Artus took a school trip to Washinton D.C. and its Smithsonian Museum. While there, she saw the Star-Spangled Banner, which hangs in the National Museum of American History. This colossal flag, made by Mary Pickersgill, flew over Fort McHenry in Baltimore during the war of 1812. It is the inspiration for the poem by Francis Scott Key that later became the national anthem of the United States.

“Here was a moment in history that I could relate to,” Artus shares on the Her Flag website. “A woman had created this important thing — it was sewn by her hands, just as a young girl I had watched my mother sew clothes for me. To this day, my experience at that museum manifests itself in my art-making.”

Artus determined she would create a new flag to be both a thank you and love letter to the 36 states that ratified the 19th amendment into law. She mapped out travel to each state in order of ratification, with Tennessee being the final stop on August 18, 2020.

Thirty-six women artists (one from each state) would collaborate with Artus to create the 18×26 foot flag. The women would make stripes representing their states, with Artus then adding those pieces to Her Flag. Sewing the stripes onto the flag would take place in state capitals at public performances. Over 340 applications came in to be one of the 36 who would eventually participate.

Marilyn Artus

Through her work, Artus explores the female experience within her art-making practice. She grew up in Norman and Tulsa, Oklahoma, and spent two years at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. Artus then returned to Oklahoma to finish her fine arts degree in printmaking at the University of Oklahoma. She spent time as a designer in the gift industry before becoming a full-time visual artist in 2008.

Two years later, she led an art-making workshop at the Brooklyn Museum in New York in association with the retrospective exhibit ‘Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, 1958-1968. Artus is also the first to receive the annual Brady Craft Alliance Award for Innovation in fiber arts.

The Final Stripe

Artus made it to 25 of 36 states before COVID-19 halted the road trip. Undeterred, she turned to live-streaming from her home. Each stripe sewing was broadcast, with Artus adding the final piece in Tennessee on the 19th amendment’s official anniversary. The stripes vary in design and theme. Some artists commemorate notable women from the suffrage and civil rights movement, while others incorporate portraits of contemporary women and girls, highlighting the legacy of suffragists in today’s social justice activism.

Her Flag debuted at the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas, on August 26, 2020. Earlier this summer, the work hung at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. You can purchase signed prints or a physical Her Flag online.

celebrating womens suffrage

Her Flag

Website
Instagram
Facebook
Her Flag Shop

Written by: Amaya Coleman

More Girls That Create Posts

We the People Teaches Kids About U.S. Government and Civics

Five Posters Empowering the Women’s Vote

15 Children’s Books for Women’s Equality Day

 

November 22, 2021

Recent Posts

  • Founder and CEO of The Broadway Podcast Network Dori Berinstein
  • Lin-Manuel Miranda Works With Sound It Out Campaign
  • Artist, Illustrator, Author, and Teacher Jennifer Orkin Lewis
  • How Movies Can Help Families Wrestle With Emotions
  • 10 Great Quotes From Women Drummers

Girls That Create Newsletter

Sign up below to receive a round-up of the latest posts each month, offers, and bonus tidbits.

Your email address will not be shared with any outside parties. You can always opt out at the bottom of newsletters or by contacting me.

Affiliate Links

Sections of this site allow you to purchase different products and services online provided by other merchants. Some of the links posted on Girls That Create are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, GTC will receive an affiliate commission. Thank you for supporting us!

Little Feminist: Subscription Box

Tea Children’s Clothes

Kids Art Supplies & Crafts

Kids Craft Kits

Archives

  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
Copyright © 2022 girlsthatcreate.com. All rights reserved. | Sitemap