Walls for Women Celebrates 100 Years of Women's Suffrage
By Marnie Kunz
In celebration of women having the right to vote for 100 years, Walls for Women has commissioned all-female mural artists to paint walls all around the state of Tennessee. With a talented crew of artists, the project included new murals in more than a dozen cities in Tennessee, supported by the group DMA.
“Like nearly every profession, a gender gap exists in the art world: Women muralists are not afforded the same opportunities as their male counterparts,” states DMA’s website. DMA is a collective of journalists, marketers, content creators and anthropologists dedicated to preserving and supporting street art around the world.
The group decided to commission Walls for Women in an effort to give women artists more opportunities to paint while marking the important landmark of women winning the right to vote 100 years ago.
“The street art scene in Tennessee is predominantly male, despite there being hundreds of female muralists every bit as talented,” according to DMA.
The incredible murals in the Walls for Women project include “Wisteria Maiden” by Toyko-born artist Juuri, in downtown Tullahoma, Tennessee. The stunning mural honors the Japanese prisoners held at Camp Forrest, Tennessee during World War II.
The roster of muralists includes such notable talents as Cymone Wilder (Nashville), Sarah Painter (Tallahassee), Kim Radford (Nashville), Nicole Salgar (Miami), Jenny Ustick (Cincinnati), Juuri (Oklahoma City), Paris Woodhull (Knoxville), Tara Aversa (Nashville) and Whitney Herrington (Columbia). Communities hosting the murals include McMinnville, Tullahoma, Nolensville, Knoxville, Maryville, Centerville and Nashville, among others. The work will be painted on walls in high-visibility locations with the subject matter reflecting the individual artists’ professional talents.
One of the murals in the project was painted by Cincinnati-based artist and scholar Jenny Ustick. Her mural, titled “Hebe,” celebrates McMinnville’s famed Hebe statue, and the Tennessee town’s roots in the nursery industry. The massive mural has four parts.
In addition to the creation of new art, DMA hopes to drive awareness to the importance in voting, both in 2020 local and federal elections, through the presence of these mural installations in a pivotal election year.
Kristin Luna and Scott van Velsor started 501(c)(3) DMA-events in May 2018 as a way to harness and inspire the imaginative spirit found in all of humanity by removing some of the barriers to entry of the creative process. Walls for Women, their project for 2020, focuses exclusively on capturing female creative energy for artistic placemaking in communities in need of joy, hope and color during Tennessee’s Centennial of the 19th Amendment.
Follow @MuralsEverywhere for the latest art celebrating women artists and check out #WallsforWomen on Instagram.
Resources: Walls for Women
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Wisteria Maiden - Fuji Musume, 不抜 -" for Walls For Women in Tullahoma, TN. Photo by Kristin Luna.
