Still They Persist: Protest Art of the 2017 Women's Marches

With the aim of keeping the words and images made and deployed by human rights advocates who took to the streets of cities around the country during January 2017 circulating within the public sphere, FemFour, a group of Cincinnati-based artists and arts advocates, put together a traveling archive of posters and placards, sculptures, textiles, and photo documentation from the day collected by the arts philanthropist and collector Sara M. Vance Waddell. Each exhibition was curated to center the issues in the hands and on the minds of artists and activists at each location.

Catalogue
Amplifying the voices in this exhibition is a 190+ page color catalogue with detailed images of these objects of resistance, which includes critical essays by Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi, Michol Hebron, Betti-Sue Hertz, Noel Anderson, and Jenny Ustick; as well as photographic documentation from the day as seen as seen through the eyes of the artists and activists who were on the ground, around the country on January 21st, 2017. Book design by Calcagno Cullen; all proceeds from sales of the book go to Heartfelt Tidbits, a Cincinnati-based non-profit refugee service organization. You may purchase the book at Wave Pool in person or via our website shop.

About the FemFour
Initially intended to populate a large wall space in her personal home gallery, art collector, philanthropist, perennial board member, and museum docent volunteer Sara M. Vance Waddell began soliciting signs from artists as soon as she knew there would be a Women’s march on Washington. Enlisting the help of independent curator and art critic Maria Seda-Reeder as well as Wave Pool Gallery’s Executive Director and social practice artist Calcagno Cullen, the group then brought on board the Contemporary Arts Center’s Curator of Education, Jaime Thompson to round out their mission: keeping the words and images of progressive activists and allies in the minds and hearts of the public.

For more information and images of all included works, please visit www.stilltheypersist.com