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“Liberty” by illustrator Tracie Ching is among the works on display in “Artists4ERA: Virginia Edition,” at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture through June 4. (Image courtesy VoteEquality)
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by Richmond artist Hamilton Glass (Image courtesy VoteEquality)
A sense of propitious occasion garlanded the opening of “Artists4ERA: Virginia Edition” on Feb. 17 at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture. The exhibit runs through June 4 and brings together regional and national artists for a lively presentation of interpretations of the ongoing discussion and vigorous efforts to make the Equal Rights Amendment the law of the land.
The sense of celebration came in part from the evening’s speakers. They included Virginia Rep. Abigail Spanberger, who recently won a tight race in the 7th District viewed by national media as a bellwether, especially after the lines of her district underwent reconfiguration. State Sen. Jennifer McClellan that evening stood poised for a special election to the 4th District seat of the late Donald McEachin. McClellan’s success a few days later would make her the first Black woman to represent the commonwealth in Congress.
Among the guests were individuals who’d engaged in a yearslong effort to pass an Equal Rights Amendment to the Virginia constitution, which occurred in 2020. The state was the last of the 38 needed for addition as the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The work that began in 1923 is today stymied by judicial maneuvers delaying publication by the national archivist, so lately in the news.
Around this evening other political bouts occurred: The Virginia Senate Education and Health Committee prevented passage of two remaining anti-transgender bills. HB 1387 sought to prohibit transgender youth in K-12 schools from participating in sports, and HB 2432 was designed to require school staff to “out” transgender and nonbinary students to their parents, outweighing individual consent or circumstances. And that afternoon, a McClellan-sponsored bill intending to enshrine reproductive freedom in Virginia was “passed by indefinitely.”
But the reason for the evening came in the assembly of 28 original works from the Artists 4 ERA collection. The exhibition is presented in a section of VMHC’s “Story of Virginia” galleries.
Artist Nico Cathcart curated the by-invitation show and, with a good-natured laugh, agrees that bringing together this number of artists resembled that proverbial herding of cats.
The proof, however, is in the display, which, as she said of the night, makes a “joyful ruckus.”
“You’re just going to have to let it go and trust that they’ll do their best,” Cathcart explains. “I reached out to people I thought were making socially motivated work and people whom I thought deserved representation in this sort of issue. So I tried to be very conscious about making a vibrant tapestry.”
This is the second iteration of the show. A group of nationally recognized artists exhibited here in 2020 following Virginia’s ratification of the ERA. Some of their art is on the wall, too, including pieces by Shepard Fairey, Amir Khadar, Tara McPherson and Chuck Sperry.
At the museum’s 2020 “Agents of Change” exhibition, Cathcart met VoteEquality Executive Director Kati Hornung, and the two then decided they needed to work together.
Cathcart is attuned to the power of art and representations of possibility. But physically, she’s going deaf. Among the artists in the show are two others who are hearing impaired. Haadia Khan, a Muslim artist who is deaf, created “Golden Pakistan Women,” an acrylic work representing a richly textured woman appreciating golden radiance. Jess Walters, who describes herself as “neurodivergent deaf-queer,” assembled a collage, “Thyme was once prescribed as a cure for nightmares (Re: ERA NOW!).” The materials come from words and images of vintage magazines and words and images from the past century of the struggle. At its center, three hands form the American Sign Language letters for ERA.
(From left) Activist Aurora Higgs with artist and curator Nico Cathcart at “Artists4ERA: Virginia Edition” (Photo via Instagram)
Among the regional artists exhibiting work are Richmonder Faithe Norrell, with her “Justice for All: Lady Liberty.” Hamilton Glass, who in 2011 began making murals in Richmond, created “On Their Shoulders,” honoring all those who marched and struggled for equal rights. Fiber artist and fashion designer Michael-Birch Pierce’s embroidery on crushed velvet, “All of Us,” depicts figures and crystals representing strength and vulnerability. A piece by Noah Scalin, who attended his first protests courtesy his mother pushing his stroller, “GenERAtions” represents the classic green ERA Yes button acting as a halo in an iconic figure. And Ashley Hawkins of Studio Two Three’s digital illustration “S234ERA” shows a clustered grouping of march placards, one reading, “Women’s Rights Are Human Rights.”
Cathcart’s own work reproduces a mural portrait of Aurora Higgs, a nationally known Black trans activist, which is also on a wall in the Bellevue neighborhood.
“It’s not lost on me that a person who looks like me doesn’t often have the opportunity to speak in public as I have the pleasure tonight,” Higgs addressed the attendees from the VMHC’s balcony on opening night. Behind her was a stirring play of moving images of Virginia towns, forests, farms and waters. She acknowledged that seeing her face on the side of a building is also unusual. She added, “For a lot of reasons and statistics, the mural may exist longer than I do. But I hope the mural and me are around a long time. ... Progress for one is progress for all.”
