To Future Women memorializes the anniversary of the Women's March in Washington DC. Created by artist Georgia Saxelby, the project invites you to write a letter to women* in twenty years time.
Part art and part history, our collective trove of letters will be archived for twenty years by participating national cultural institutions in Washington DC and re-exhibited in 2037 on the 20th anniversary of the Women's March.
To Future Women uses the platform of art to historicize one of the largest networked protests in global history while creating a time capsule for the next generation of women.
Central to the project is an acknowledgement that what a culture celebrates, memorializes and marks as significant reflects and defines who that culture is, and, most importantly, who we want to become.
* Women meaning female-identifying, female-bodied and/or non-binary individuals
Photo: Kate Warren
Photo Joe Gibson
Join us this weekend Thursday June 7 - Sunday June10
Hirshhorn
Join the To Future Women archive by writing a letter to women in 20 years while reflecting on the Hirshhorn’s unique view overlooking the National Archives and the National Mall. Over four days, To Future Women will intervene in the Hirshhorn's programs with Museum Tours focused on women artists, feminist Storytime for children, Artist Talks with Georgia Saxelby and a participatory Circle Discussion on women-driven knowledge systems. Join us for the following:
Thursday June 7
10am | Storytime: Rosie Revere Engineer
Friday June 8
9am | Early Morning Artist Talk with Georgia Saxelby
Saturday June 9
2pm | Artist Talk with Georgia Saxelby
Sunday June 10
11am | Storytime: Rosie Revere Engineer
3pm | Circle Discussion: Archives & Lullabies
How are women’s* knowledge systems transmitted? What role do these systems play in shaping our broader cultural landscape? In this participatory discussion, the artist Georgia Saxelby together with Dr Antoinette Ford, Founder of Double Nickels Theatre Company, will co-facilitate a conversation about women-driven methods of activating, exchanging and passing on cultural knowledge and value systems. Exploring the forms of recipes, lullabies, wives’ tales and more, we will be questioning hierarchies of knowledge and exploring traditional and contemporary forms of women’s self-expression and communication. Participants are invited to bring to the discussion a tangible object or story that connects to a lesson learnt from a woman.
* women meaning female-identifying, female-bodied and/or non-binary individuals
Throughout the weekend
Museum Tours focusing on women artists currently on display at the Hirshhorn
Photo Joe Gibson
From June 1 - July 1, To Future Women will be presented at
Hillyer
This solo exhibition by Georgia Saxelby re-interprets the To Future Women project into an artistic sacred space. An inhabitable installation will transform letters received throughout the project into a processional chamber that reveals our hopes, anxieties and anticipations for a new future generation of bold women.
The installation draws on the ritual action of procession and the notion of the numinous gateway, a threshold space that stands between known and unknown, bridging the present and the prospective. This exhibition is the last time the To Future Women letters will be visible before they enter a time capsule for the next 20 years.
Artist Talk | Wednesday June 27 from 6.30-8pm
IA&A at Hillyer | 9 Hillyer Ct NW, Washington, DC
“May we produce honey. May we dance with our communities. May we keep our stingers sharp.”
About the project
To Future Women launched at The Phillips Collection on 21st January, 2018 in Washington, DC and will continue for six months as a pop-up installation in museums and public spaces throughout Washington. Everyone - women, men and all gender identities - can contribute to this archive by mailing your letter to the artist in Washington DC.
The project seeks to reinterpret the current cooperative acts of feminine solidarity and self-expression, epitomized by the Women’s March and the #MeToo virtual movement. The archive will detail our present stories, as well as our hopes, expectations and anxieties for the future in relation to women and women’s experiences. To Future Women aims to re-activate museum spaces that were used and visited during the Women’s March while acknowledging DC as the epicentre of a protest that spread globally.
Our collective trove of letters will be digitized and made available as a whole through this virtual platform. They will be accessible to the public throughout the world only for a limited period of time before being replaced by a countdown towards January 21, 2037. Portions of our letters will be periodically made available throughout the next twenty years on dates significant to the history of women.
About the artist
Georgia Saxelby is a US-based, Sydney-born artist working at the intersection of art, architecture, ritual and cultural identity. She is currently a Fellow at the art and social impact incubator, Halcyon Arts Lab, in Washington, DC. Saxelby creates participatory installations that investigate contemporary cultural relationships to women and feminine identity through ritual practices and sacred spaces.
Artist Georgia Saxelby at The Phillips Collection on the launch of To Future Women. Photo Joe Gibson
To Future Women is supported by
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body, as well as, Halcyon Arts Lab, IA&A at Hillyer and the Embassy of Australia in Washington, DC. Special thank you to The Phillips Collection for presenting the inaugural exhibition of To Future Women.
