Ohio Women Vote exhibit set for RCC
The Auglaize County Historical Society and Riverside Arts Center are pleased to announce that the traveling exhibit "OHIO WOMEN VOTE: 100 Years of Change" will visit Auglaize County from April 7 to May 1 at Riverside Art Center, 3 West Auglaize Street, Wapakoneta. The exhibit is free and open to the public. Riverside Art Center's operating hours are Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from noon to 4 p.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Visitors are asked to observe current health protocols.
Designed and curated by the Ohio History Connection, OHIO WOMEN VOTE will examine and celebrate the path taken by Ohio women to achieve the right to vote, as well as the history of civic action led by a diverse spectrum of Ohio women throughout American history. This narrative will begin with the first women's rights convention in 1848 and carry through the present day. While telling this story, the exhibit will ask visitors to consider the intersections between various women's movements and other American social movements such as the Civil Rights Movement and the Temperance Movement.
Exploring these stories will require visitors to reckon with complicated questions of identity.
What does it mean to be a voter? To be a citizen? To be a woman? How can different parts of our identities change our experiences? "OHIO WOMEN VOTE: 100 Years of Change" will tell the stories of Ohio's women in their own voices and balances a chronological and thematic approach while focusing on this power of women to tell their own stories.
In Auglaize County the exhibit will include a special addition, a sign exhibit highlighting accomplished local women from history. Accompanying public programming will also be provided, including Facebook presentations by State Representative Susan Manchester (April 7), and Debra Eschmeyer, (April 26) who served in the Obama White House, as well as a program about suffrage from the Cuyahoga Valley National Park (April 12). Additionally, the Armstrong Air & Space Museum's April 13th Facebook presentation "Mercury Women: Forgotten Link to the Future" is presented in conjunction with the exhibit as well.
States Historical Society administrator Rachel Barber, "This engaging and educational exhibit was originally to have visited here in April 2020, in commemoration of the centennial of women's suffrage. We're so pleased to be able to work with Riverside Art Center to make that visit finally happen. There is no bad time to celebrate women's history!"
States Riverside Art Center president Julie Heft "Riverside Art Center is pleased to have partnered with the Historical Society with this important exhibit showcasing women's achievements that have helped pave the way for the generations that followed. Take time to walk through the gallery this month and discover how 100 years of progress is integral as inspiration for all ages."
Riverside Art Center was founded to inspire creativity through the arts. Located in beautiful and historic downtown Wapakoneta. Riverside Art Center is home to a variety of art classes and exhibits.