During Women’s History Month on March 8th, 2023, the mural will be dedicated in the Union Square area of Manhattan, New York where local and national activism is most present. There will be food trucks and beverages, along with speakers from the #MeToo movement to help dedicate the mural. There will be an opportunity for select women survivors of abuse to quote their experiences and will place a painted handprint on part of the mural. 
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Most people don't often think of women when they walk past street art in New York City. But consequently, there has been an influx of female artists throughout the past fifteen years. Mediums such as textile graffiti, which have competed with other forms of street art for years, are a visible example of how the craft is undermined, such as women who have been abused. Textile art for decades was seen as a woman’s manual work, therefore it is devalued as a true creative form of art. This prejudice formed a sexist lens of both the textile art form and the general art world and is responsible for the negative feedback that textile art had to face throughout history. This correlates well with the #METOO movement and the stigma surrounding it . Let’s take a look on the statistics regarding women and abuse on https://metoomvmt.org/learn-more/statistics/:
  • “1 in 8 people “had someone threaten to post and/or post sexually explicit images of them without their consent,” according to a 2017 study by the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI). Women were almost twice as likely to be the targets of nonconsensual pornography (NCP) than men.”
  • “1 in 4 women have experienced rape or attempted rape during their lifetimes, according to several national U.S. surveys.”
  • “1 in 4 women returning from the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan reported that they were sexually assaulted while they were deployed.”

The #METOO movement, now grown into a global recognition for anyone who has suffered abuse, granted a platform for voices and resulted in positive change in new legal action and standards. In order for this outcome to stay consistent in terms of relevance and significance, work cannot stop here. This is why I propose a mural focusing on women, each representing a statistic shown from the previous bullet points above. Rather than having these women lingering in fear, their stance will show empowerment and overcoming what they have gone through. There will be an open application for local women-based street artists in New York City, where the movement initially started. A total of six artists will be selected to participate. This application will be available  from the dates November 3rd to December 1st. Chosen artists will be notified via email by January 1st. 

Click the button below to apply.