Art from apart
Like many buildings and activities on campus, the Catherine G. Murphy Art Gallery remains closed due to the pandemic. This semester’s galleries, which celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote, have been moved onto an online platform.
The 19th amendment anniversary has been a key focus for St. Kate’s this year. It has been presented in the hosted integrated learning sessions during the month of October, and through other interactions in St. Kate’s such as Citizen Katie Day and the core classes. Even outside of the St. Kate’s community, the anniversary has been celebrated through different events and different organizations memorializing the historic decision made only 100 years ago.
Dr. Martha Rogers Ripley, a woman who served as the president of the Minnesota Women Suffrage Association for six years and helped to advocate for various women’s rights.
These portraits, painted by Minneapolis artist Leslie Barlow, feature different suffragists from Minnesota. They show how diverse the women’s suffrage movement was in Minnesota, and who helped to secure the vote for women in this state and across the nation.
Barlow is an artist interested in examining and redefining terms of decolonization and helping to create a new feeling of belonging through her art. This is one of several collections of artwork that Barlow has made to convey a message of social change and social justice.
In the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, Barlow worked to create community murals that promote the Black Lives Matter movement and demand justice for black victims of police brutality. Her work has been showcased at the Catherine G. Murphy Gallery before, and is being shown once more through this installation.
The artwork is currently being displayed in the Coere de Catherine 3rd floor common space, and is scheduled to remain there until mid-December for viewing by the campus community. If you are unable to view the installation in person, the artwork is available for online viewing here.
Minnesota suffragist Mary Louise Bottineau Baldwin, an indigenous woman who voiced for the right to vote for Native American women.
To learn more about the suffragists that are portrayed, view Citizen, a documentary featuring these remarkable women in a collaboration between St. Kate’s and filmmaker Daniel Bergin. To see more artwork by this artist, you can visit their website here and see their other galleries and art initiatives.
