Walls for Women celebrates 100th anniversary of 19th Amendment across Tennessee with art – The Leaf-Chronicle
Activists from both sides of the Women’s Suffrage Movement descended upon the steps of Tennessee’s capitol building in protest one hot summer’s day 100 years ago.
Known as “The Perfect 36,” Tennessee became the last of the necessary 36 states to secure ratification of the 19th Amendment of the Constitution on Aug. 18, 1920, giving women the right to vote. It would be decades more until all women had equal rights assured by the Voting Act of 1965.
Centennial celebrations of this historical milestone have been drastically scaled back because of COVID-19 restrictions.
Yet, Kristin Luna and Scott Van Velsor, founders of Do More Art Events (DMA-events), are attempting to feed many birds with one seed while celebrating such a momentous occasion. That seed is Walls for Women, a mural festival in rural towns and cities across Tennessee, capturing female creative energy during Tennessee’s celebration of the 19th Amendment.
A Tennessee-based non-profit, the couple founded DMA-events in 2018 with their first mural, “as a way to harness and inspire the imaginative spirit found in all of humanity by removing some of the barriers to entry of the creative process,” Luna said.
With more than a dozen murals under its belt since its inception, DMA-events worked to recruit female muralists within the Tennessee drive market for the Walls for Women celebration because they’re often overlooked for men for the same jobs, making it difficult to make a living using their talent.
“So, the concept of creating this festival was to give a nod to Tennessee’s history in ratifying the amendment, to talk about the importance of voting, making men and women equal in the eyes of everyone, but also hiring women and being able to keep them employed as artists,” Luna said, pointing out that a lot of these women have lost work due to the pandemic.
The roster of muralists working on projects across Tennessee includes Cymone Wilder (Nashville), Sarah Painter (Tallahassee), Kim Radford (Nashville), Nicole Salgar (Miami), Jenny Ustick (Cincinnati), Juuri (Oklahoma City) and Tara Aversa (Nashville).
Volunteer State communities hosting murals include the cities of Nashville and Knoxville and smaller towns such as Maryville, Martin and McMinnville.
The artists are targeting buildings that need a coat of paint, or are simply run down, with many of them in very visible spots for impact, Luna said. They are often in downtown cores to drive interest, and Luna said that the building owners had to be on board with the project.
It’s imperative, she said, since “we don’t believe in dictated art, as then it ceases to be true art. We’ve found this a mission in life to be advocates for the artists.”
The Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 protects each mural, which must remain intact for at least three years.
“We’re not altering the historical significance of the building. It’s just paint and we’re improving the structural integrity of the building while stimulating the growth of the community,” Luna said.
Because DMA-events believes in giving artists full creative expression, the murals themselves aren’t necessarily about the suffrage movement, “but what lives in each muralist’s creative mind,” Luna said.
“They will be colorful, thoughtful and drive forward the state’s century-old commitment to female equality. The whole concept of this project is to give women an unregulated voice through art.”
Luna said that the first thing to go when there are budget cuts is often the arts.
“What have we all been using to get us through these weird times?” She said. “We’ve been using art. We’ve been using TV, podcasts, books, music and movies. These are all forms of art.“
Partnering with brands such as Cycles Gladiator, Tennessee Whiskey Trail and Sunbelt Rentals, DMA-events also collaborates with the tourism bureaus in each town, along with the Tennessee Arts Commission, which has released funds to help with a second round of murals this fall. The first round of murals wrapped up this week with an unveiling at Nelson’s Greenbrier Distillery in Nashville.
Walls for Women focuses on celebrating the artist, but also hope to inspire all who visit the murals.
Luna is hopeful that this year-long festival, coupled with celebrating the tireless efforts of those suffragists long ago, will inspire all Tennesseans to exercise their voting rights.
“We were 49th in 2016 for voter turnout,” she said. “It’s ironic that we were the state that gave women the right to vote, but we don’t exercise that vote.”
And, while a global pandemic may have thrown a wrench in DMA-events’ plans for a festival in the truest sense, people from Tennessee and beyond can still get festive by road-tripping it. DMA-events has left it up to each location as to how they prefer to celebrate the unveiling of their specific murals.
For a list of murals and locations, visit www.dma-events.com/learn-more.
In the meantime, Luna hopes that more Tennesseans will be sure to road trip it to the polls on Election Day.
“It’s a celebration of women in these small steps that we’ve taken to close the gender gap. But, we need to be reminded that we still have a long way to go at being treated the same,” she said.
Published 6:00 AM EDT Aug 21, 2020
