The art gallery at Greenport’s Floyd Memorial Library was again packed to the gills Friday evening, March 28, as the community celebrated the opening of “Passing the Brush: Feminist Art NOW,” an innovative collaboration between the gallery, Peconic Community School eighth grader Hannah Quigley, and female artists from throughout the community.
Pictured Above: Co-curators Sally Grant (left) and Hannah Quigley (right) at the opening.
Ms. Quigley, a self-described feminist, conceived the show as her school capstone project, partnering with library curator Sally Grant to engage 13 female artists from the East End in a conversation about their work and the feminist texts that have inspired them.
Students at Greenport High School have also contributed works, and the Peconic Community School Art Collective, including students from first through eighth grade aided by art teacher Karolina Petersson, made a collaborative feminist zine — a handmade magazine — which is on display.
The exhibition also partners with the UK-based Domestic Dusters Project, a craftivist enterprise inviting women and girls to embroider their views of so-called women’s work on a yellow duster, which is a popular cleaning cloth in Britain.
You may have seen your friends and neighbors working on their dusters — nearly 120 people picked up duster embroidery kits, many of which were on display at the opening.
“The inspiration for this exhibition seems simple. I am a feminist. I am an artist. Boom! Feminist art,” said Ms. Quigley at the opening. “But truly, feminism is an art in itself. It inspires, it gives hope, it brings us together and it is passed between generations of women. And so now that the brush has been passed to me, I am passing to all of you. I hope that you pass it to your daughters, to your sisters, to your aunts and mothers, to your grandmothers, your friends. I hope that you continue to pass the brush to everyone, spreading the joy, the love, the dream, of feminism. And I hope that you never stop passing it.”
Denise Silva-Dennis” data-medium-file=”https://www.eastendbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Denise-Silva-Dennis-300×191.jpeg” data-large-file=”https://www.eastendbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Denise-Silva-Dennis-1024×650.jpeg” data-id=”84230″ src=”https://www.eastendbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Denise-Silva-Dennis-1024×650.jpeg” alt class=”wp-image-84230″ srcset=”https://www.eastendbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Denise-Silva-Dennis-1024×650.jpeg 1024w, https://www.eastendbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Denise-Silva-Dennis-300×191.jpeg 300w, https://www.eastendbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Denise-Silva-Dennis-768×488.jpeg 768w, https://www.eastendbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Denise-Silva-Dennis-600×381.jpeg 600w, https://www.eastendbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Denise-Silva-Dennis.jpeg 1200w” sizes=”(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px”>
Anne Sherwood Pundyk” data-medium-file=”https://www.eastendbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/anne-sherwood-pundyk-300×248.jpeg” data-large-file=”https://www.eastendbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/anne-sherwood-pundyk.jpeg” data-id=”84228″ src=”https://www.eastendbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/anne-sherwood-pundyk.jpeg” alt class=”wp-image-84228″ srcset=”https://www.eastendbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/anne-sherwood-pundyk.jpeg 800w, https://www.eastendbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/anne-sherwood-pundyk-300×248.jpeg 300w, https://www.eastendbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/anne-sherwood-pundyk-768×636.jpeg 768w, https://www.eastendbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/anne-sherwood-pundyk-600×497.jpeg 600w” sizes=”(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px”>
Students who participated in the projectMany attendees at the opening — men, women and kids — wore suffragist white outfits to the opening, highlighting the continued urgency of women’s rights at a time when civil rights are being undermined throughout the United States.
The crowd also spanned generations, with many women in attendance sharing stories of how their families have perceived the roles of women from throughout the generations.
Denise Silva-Dennis, WeeTahMoe, an artist from the Shinnecock Nation, shared two pieces, “I asked my Mom Why? Collage/Portrait of Kelly Sennis, Esq.” and “Princess Nowedonah” with the show.
The first piece details the process by which her daughter, Kelly Dennis, went from a small girl questioning why only men served as Trustees on the Tribal Council to becoming the second female Trustee elected to represent the nation.
Ms. Silva-Dennis said at the opening that the lack of women on the council dates back to when the tribe was interacting with the colonists who first arrived in Southampton, who would only negotiate with Shinnecock men.
“They imposed that on us. It was not our way,” she said.
Since Ms. Smith’s service on the Council in 2021 and 2022, the tribal governing body elected its first female chair of the trustees, Lisa Goree, in 2024.
Clockwise from top left: A detail from the Domestic Duster Project, PCC’s “Young Feminist” zine, Kara Hoblin’s “In the Realm III,” Poppy Johnson’s “Making Art With 3-Year-Olds.”
Greenport artist and librarian Poppy Johnson’s work in the show, “Making Art With 3-Year-Olds,” is based on the artist’s 1978 handmade “The Book of Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny in Pictures.”
“I was one of the group of artists who were given the dubious honor of being the first to occupy “residencies” at what was then an unheated, abandoned school building,” she said in her artist statement. “My children and I went by subway every day, lugging various materials, and we transformed an old schoolroom into a visual art history called ONTOGENY RECAPITULATES PHYLOGENY, a neat phrase for the idea that the development of an individual mirrors the evolutionary history of its species. All children are artists. All art starts with handprints on a wall. There should be drumming and singing and dancing.”
Kara Hoblin’s “In the Realm” series explores fairy tale narratives that shaped her childhood imagination and sense of wonder.
“During college, I began exploring the origins of these tales and uncovered their darker, often unsettling truths,” she wrote in her artist statement. “Many of the original fairy tales were not whimsical or empowering, but cautionary stories designed to instill fear and keep women and children in their place.”
Anne Sherwood-Pundyk, a Mattituck-based artist whose work explores the way trauma is carried through generations, seemed delighted to share her work with the project.
“This is an illicit topic. We’re not allowed to talk about it, and here we are,” she said at the opening, adding that she was excited to be part of an ongoing conversation between the generations.
She added that she was particularly excited about the Zine project.
“It’s a great format, tied with activist feminism, and it’s part of a great DIY tradition,” she said, adding that the Museum of Modern Art collects zines.
Other artists whose work was on display include Marta Baumiller, Lisa Bowen, Deborah Feingold, Vanessa Marr, Arden Scott, Kate Seward, Agathe Snow, Elizabeth Talerman and Lakota Fae Wilder.
Ms. Grant, the library curator, seemed thrilled at how the project turned out.
“You have a fantastic eye,” she told Ms. Quigley at the opening. “I can’t wait to see what you are going to do next.”
The exhibition will be on view until 5 p.m. on Sunday, May 11, 2025 (Mother’s Day). The Floyd Memorial Library is at 539 First Street in Greenport.
Keep Independent News on the East End
The Beacon is able to provide all of our content online free of charge thanks to support from our readers. Be a vital part of keeping our community informed!
