Give Us the Vote 2020

In the U.S., women who fought for voting rights were referred to as suffragists rather than the British term of suffragettes. Americans viewed “suffragette” as too diminutive.

This installation pays tribute to the "Golden Lane," a powerful protest that put women's suffrage on the Democratic party's national platform. At the 1916 Democratic National Convention in St. Louis more than 2,000 women, dressed in white with gold sashes and carrying gold umbrellas stood shoulder to shoulder in silence along Locust Street.

Even before winning the right to vote, women were active participants in the American democratic process. Here, two contemporary women of ambiguous race share a slice of cake, specifically Election Cake – a tasty tool 18th century women employed to get men to the polls.

Inspired by the suffragette handcrafted cloth banners, this work features the word VOTE inked on small cut pieces of fabric inserted into gel caps and stored in a glass jar.

The Voting Rights Act was a piece of landmark legislation, passed by the Johnson administration in 1965 to uphold the Fifteenth Amendment. In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a key provision of the VRA, removing a critical tool to combat racial discrimination at the polls. This opened the door for states to implement stringent voter ID requirements, among other measures, to limit who has access to the ballot box. As a result, the 2016 presidential election was considered the hardest election to vote in since the Jim Crow era.

Yashua Klos’ monumental woodblock print portrait of a black man standing for the pledge of allegiance, with a closed fist over his heart explores the deep relationship between protest and patriotism. The artist says: "Coming-of-voting-age, as a young black man, I recall the older generation insisting that their fight for voting rights be honored through our act of voting… All Americans have the right to vote, or not, and pledge allegiance to our symbols of democracy by singing the National Anthem, or not.”

Lamone v. Benisek was a case before the Supreme Court that addressed partisan gerrymandering in the state of Maryland. The 6th District had historically favored Republicans but were redrawn in 2011 to shift the political majority to Democrats by diluting voting blocks. Both major parties have taken advantage of redistricting to shift power in their favor.

En route to the 19th Amendment, the suffragists helped write new laws that protected the rights of women, including laws that gave married women title to their own earnings. Michele Pred's voting booth symbolizes the underlying choices a woman makes every time she supports a candidate.

Rebecca Mushtare invites viewers to cast a ballot, only to learn their vote can only be counted if submitted during a particular time window. The process mimics the experiences of people who live at or below the poverty line who are disproportionately impacted by laws against early voting, limited poll hours, and voter id requirements.

This miniature voting booth is constructed from used lottery cards, and reflects on the way many voters may feel about elections -- that the outcome is out of their hands.

As a follow up to The Bucks Vote Here, 1600 Mayhem suggests that money, power, and politics are deeply and inextricably connected.

"Perforated Flag, is reminiscent of the privacy curtain outside voting booths. Of course, the holes in Tom Fruin's sculpture suggest these curtains aren't so private, raising questions about voter security in the digital age.

Robert Brush's neon sculpture references a speech attributed to Malcolm X, and made famous in the Spike Lee biopic about the Civil Rights leader. "Bamboozled" is how many Americans, and especially African Americans may feel about the American election system.

Profile is both a portrait of a “winning” candidate and a portrait of the American electorate. Based on an exit poll conducted by Edison Research in 2016, the artist has assigned colors to different voting demographics -- for example, white represents “White Women” and black represents “Latino Men.” The frequency with which a color occurs in the portrait corresponds to the voter turnout of that demographic.

Irja Boden's ceramic sculpture, with its jumble of toys, makes us wonder: is politics child's play?

Election season is an exciting and empowering time for many Americans. Collecting memorabilia from elections is a common way to show support for favorite candidates or to mark particular eras in history.

This folk art inspired sculpture is a pocket-sized and playful reminder to vote.

^ote draws on the legacy of artist books, Dada, and visual literary works like Marshall McLuhan's "The Medium is the Message" to rally voters to the polls.