Her Flag” Artist to Travel United States, Partnering with 36 Female Artists in 36 states to Create Large-scale Collaborative Flag Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment
Marilyn Artus to collaborate with 36 Women Artists – One in Each of the States that Voted to Ratify the 19th Amendment – in Celebration of the 100th Anniversary of Women’s Suffrage; Partners with Judith Mayer in Illinois.
The live Illinois Her Flag sewing event will be held on June 12th, 2019 at 5:30 pm at SAA Collective Gallery inside the Hoogland Center for the Arts located at 420 S. 6th St. Springfield, Illinois 62701. For the Illinois portion of the project Artus is collaborating with Judith Mayer, a Chicago artist and illustrator, who was born and raised in the Midwest and is the daughter of an immigrant. Local singer songwriter Jill Manning will be preforming at the event. The media and public are invited to join us for the free event.
“Representing Illinois in this project is such an honor. I appreciate the chance to celebrate the unbelievably determined and outspoken suffragettes. I am thankful that they risked their safety, overcame enormous obstacles, and refused to be silenced. It was no small task to change the minds of an entire nation.” —Judith Mayer.
Oklahoma City – On June 8, 2019, award-winning artist Marilyn Artus will begin a 14-month journey across the United States in celebration of the 100th anniversary of 19th Amendment in 2020. Her Flag is a tribute to all the men and women who worked to kick open the door to give women the right to vote in the United States.
Her Flag will be created throughout the course of her travels, which will take place in the order of the amendment’s ratification. During her travels she will be collaborating with women artists in each state, sewing a stripe designed by each onto Her Flag, which will ultimately measure 18 feet tall by 26 feet wide when complete in 2020. She is collaborating with 36 women artists who each currently live in one of the 36 states that ratified the 19th Amendment. Each of the artists has designed one stripe for the 36-stripe flag, created in their own artistic voice. Marilyn will sew the stripe onto the flag at a live event in the capital city of each state.
“I am on a mission to make sure that every woman I come in contact with over the next 14 months is registered to vote and gets out in 2020 to put that registration to use.” said project founder, artist and suffrage era enthusiast, Marilyn Artus. “But celebrating this anniversary isn’t just about women. This was a fight. It took Democrats and Republicans and Men and Women and Black and White Americans working together to get this amendment passed. Her Flag is a not a political piece of work, rather a powerful, positive symbol used to educate and celebrate this truly momentous American anniversary.”
Partner artists of note include Utah’s Jann Haworth, pioneer of fiber art sculpture in the 1960s and best known for co-designing The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover, for which she received a Grammy. Nicole LaRue will be creating the stripe for New Hampshire. Nicole designed the official Women’s March on Washington logo and was recently interviewed by CNN about the design. Rora Blue of California will be representing her state and is best known for her social media presence. Rora Blue has collected over 36,000 unsent text messages from people all over the world for her The Unsent Project and she has over 88,000 followers on Instagram. New York artist, Indira Cesarine, is a multimedia artist and is the founder of The Untitled Space art gallery, which has been celebrated for its feminist exhibitions, including ONE YEAR OF RESISTANCE, and UPRISE ANGRY WOMEN, among many others. All 36 artists selected to represent their state, including links to their websites, can be found at www.herflag.com/
About the Journey
The first stop of the journey will be in Madison, Wisconsin on June 10th, 2019, on the 100th year anniversary of the Wisconsin legislature passing the resolution ratifying the 19th amendment. She will continue her travels to each of the 36 states in order of ratification ending in Nashville, Tennessee on August 18th, 2020. On this date, 100 years after Tennessee ratified the 19th amendment granting American women the universal right to vote, Marilyn will complete and display Her Flag.
About Marilyn Artus and Her Flag
Marilyn Artus lives in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She worked as a designer in the gift industry for thirteen years and in 2008 she became a full time visual artist. She has been using the American flag in her recent works and has created tribute works to Susan B. Anthony, Victoria Woodhull, Gloria Steinem, Ida B. Wells, Candy Darling and Beyoncé. Learn more about this project at www.herflag.com
About Judith Mayer
Judith Mayer, a Chicago artist and illustrator, was born and raised in the Midwest and is the daughter of an immigrant. After working at several design firms, she decided 20 years ago to start her own practice. Her work has been published by Communication Arts, Uppercase Magazine, HOW Magazine, Graphic Design USA, and Logo Lounge.
About Jill Manning
Jill Manning is a local singer songwriter who preforms with Jaigh Lowder as an acoustic duet. a Chicago artist and illustrator, was born and raised in the Midwest and is the daughter of an immigrant. After working
About the SAA Collective
SAA Collective, a division of the Springfield Art Association, is a commercial sales gallery and a professional hub for artist based in Springfield and Central Illinois. SAA Collective began as the Women’s Art Alliance in 1979 as an artists’ support group called the Women’s Art Alliance. Its purpose was to encourage and promote local women artists by providing exhibition opportunities, workshops, and artistic development. The Alliance incorporated as a nonprofit organization in 1985 and changed its name to Prairie Art Alliance in 1995 to reflect the admission of male artists. Beginning in 1996, it opened a gallery and class-room on the grounds of the Springfield Art Association, just north of downtown. In 2004, the PAA moved to downtown Springfield in the newly established Hoogland Center for the Arts, where it resides today. In January 2016, the Prairie Art Alliance merged with the Springfield Art Association.
For more information about the SAA Collective, please contract gallery director Corrin McWhirter at gallerydirector@
