WOMEN TAKE THE FLOOR

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

Women Take the Floor was an exhibition of more than 200 works drawn mostly from the MFAís permanent collection. The exhibition challenged the dominant, male-centric lens through which 20th-century American Art has traditionally been presented by highlighting the work of overlooked and underrepresented women-identified artists. The exhibition design sought to redefine the traditional art historical notion of the male-gaze by literally and metaphorically establishing a new framework for looking at art. Using red quote boxes as a graphic and red architectural frames for walls and doorways allowed audiences to experience a visual and physical shift of the “white cube,” sensitively bringing historic and contemporary works into dialogue. The exhibition "took over" the Level 3 of the Art of the Americas Wing and advocated for diversity, inclusion, and gender equity in museums, the art world, and beyond.