Women's Suffrage and the Power of the Arts

This year, 2020, marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing and protecting women’s constitutional right to vote. In commemoration of this historical anniversary, I was honored to be invited by National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Mary Anne Carter to join her for a discussion about how the arts helped shape the women’s suffrage movement and changed America for the better. Our 30-minute exchange was livestreamed on August 20, and I invite NASAA members to watch the discussion.

I also would like to congratulate the National Endowment for the Arts on the recent publication of Creativity and Persistence: Art that Fueled the Fight for Women’s Suffrage. This book celebrates the centennial through carefully curated and persuasive images of the cartoons, fashions, illustrations, paintings and poems that changed the status quo and, over time, the lives of women and America for the better. Creativity and Persistence is available as a downloadable PDF and an audiobook.

Enjoy both!