As we mark the 250th anniversary of our nation’s independence, The Women’s Caucus for Art poses the challenging question: Independence for whom?

Women and marginalized groups continue to fight for representation, recognition, and equity in every arena. Rights and freedoms that our forebears struggled to obtain are being systematically stripped away. Our stories are suppressed, our voices are muted, and our contributions are marginalized.

This milestone of American independence from colonial rule provides an opportunity to confront the legacy of inequity and reimagine independence as a shared promise. What kind of world can we create when we are all truly free? The Women’s Caucus for Art invited all women-identified artists in the United States to submit work for this juried exhibition that amplifies their narratives, addressing themes such as:

• Freedom and Equity: What does independence truly mean, and for whom?

• Resilience and Resistance: Representations of struggle, survival, and strength.

• Voices of the Marginalized: Perspectives often overlooked in history and society.

The Workhouse Arts Center is a unique setting for this exhibition, with a complex history on the sight of a former prison. Through 91 years as the District’s correctional facility (1910-2001), the Workhouse gained early visibility by holding dozens of suffragists. The treatment of the suffragists while at the Occoquan Workhouse in 1917 would play a pivotal role in the fight to pass the 19th Amendment.