Braids & Threads: Connecting Legacies, organized by artists Monica Jahan Bose and Autumn Spears

Location: Washington Project for the Arts,  1350 Connecticut Ave NW (ground floor, wheelchair accessible), Washington DC; metro: Dupont Circle (Red Line), Buses D72, D74 and more.

Opening reception: Saturday, December 13, 2025 from 3-5 pm

Exhibition dates: December 13, 2025 – March 8, 2025.

Gallery hours: Wednesday–Friday, 12–6:00pm, and Saturday, 1:00–5:00pm.

Tea Time with the Artists- Fridays from 3-5 pm.

Artists’ Conversation & Heritage Meal, Sunday, February 8, 2026, 6-8 pm @ Eaton House, 1201 K St NW

Woodblock Workshop- Friday, February 13, 2026,  3-5 pm

Crochet Circle- Friday, February 20, 2026, 3-5 pm

Closing Day- & Performance- March 8, 2026, 1-5 pm, with performance beginning at WPA at 3 pm and moving to Dupont Circle and Heurich House

Washington Project for the Arts (WPA) is pleased to present the inaugural project of their new space in Dupont Circle (1350 Connecticut Ave. NW), opening December 13.

Braids & Threads: Connecting Legacies, organized by artists Monica Jahan Bose and Autumn Spears, is a part of WPA’s open call project series, “Lineages: Generations of Creative Resiliencein the District.”

Both Bose and Spears lean into their diasporic heritage in their practices, incorporating skills they learned from their elders: sewing/textiles (Bose) crocheting and hair braiding techniques (Spears).

Their ongoing conversations—across generations, between Gen X and Gen Z—have opened up new energy and direction in both of their practices. This is their first collaboration.

For this project, Bose and Spears will engage in a series of conversations—some recorded as podcasts—about the relevance of exploring connection with heritage, mothers, and ancestors. Together, they will consider how weaving inherited knowledge into contemporary work can promote resilience.Using the concepts, stories, and ideas arising from these conversations, the two artist-organizers will create an installation in WPA’s project space using multilingual text, embroidery, braiding, sewing, fiber art and printmaking. It will be an evolving exhibition and work-space, where other artists and community members are invited to drop in and contribute with their own stories and art-making.   Listen to their podcast on Spotify.

Braids & Threads: Connecting Legacies will begin on Saturday, December 13, 2025 with an Opening Reception from 3:00–5:00pm. Attendees are invited to bring vintage vinyl to play along with the artists’ selection of intergenerational grooves. The project will be presented in

WPA’s new location in Dupont Circle, 1350 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington DC.

Public Programs

A regular weekly Tea Time with the artists, on Fridays from 3:00–5:00pm, will welcome visitors to join in conversation and collaborate on the evolving installation. Workshops focused on crocheting and block printing will also occur onsite throughout the project’s duration.

About the Organizing Artists

Monica Jahan Bose is a Bangladeshi-American artist and activist whose work spans performance, painting, printmaking, film, and installation. Her socially engaged work highlights the intersection of climate, racial, gender, and economic injustice through co-created workshops,installations, and performances. She has exhibited her work extensively in the US and internationally including solo exhibitions at the Bangladesh National Museum and MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art Rome. She has been awarded five large-scale public art grants in DC, each centering community co-creation and featuring multiple workshops, film/projections, performances, and site-specific installation.

Her ongoing collaborative art and advocacy project Storytelling with Saris, started in 2012 with women farmers from her ancestral island village, has traveled to eight countries and 13 US states, engaging thousands of people. Her work has appeared in The Miami Herald, The Washington Post, BBC, Art Asia Pacific, The Milwaukee Sentinel, The Honolulu Star Advertiser, The Japan Times, Prothom Alo and all major newspapers in Bangladesh. The Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum has acquired a collection of her paintings, saris, woodblocks, and archival materials. She has a BA in studio art and mathematics from Wesleyan University, a diploma in art from Santiniketan, India, and a JD from Columbia Law School. She lives and works in Washington,

DC.

Autumn Spears is a DC native whose art serves as a powerful medium for reimagining Black histories and diasporic narratives. Her upbringing within communities of color, alongside her experiences navigating predominantly white institutions, has deeply shaped both her identity and artistic vision. Moving between these contrasting spaces sparked her commitment to exploring Black representation and identity across the African diaspora.  In 2020, she received her BFA in Art Education from Albright College. In 2023, Spears held her inaugural solo exhibition, Becoming, at the Freedman Gallery in Reading, Pennsylvania. This milestone event showcased her distinctive style and marked the beginning of a promising artistic journey. Additionally, Spears’ work has been featured in local cultural institutions such as the MLK Memorial Library, Charles Sumner School, Anacostia Arts Center, and the Anacostia Community Museum. Spears is also a 2024 DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities grant recipient and 2025 Art Bank finalist.

About WPA

Founded in 1975, Washington Project for the Arts (WPA) is a nonprofit incubator and laboratory for artist-organized projects, headquartered in Dupont Circle, Washington, DC. Since its founding, WPA has presented more than 500 exhibitions; 1,000 performances; 700 lectures, workshops, and symposia; 250 screenings; and 58 public art projects. Over the past four decades, nearly every major visual artist in the District has been part of WPA’s programming. After renewing its mission in 2018, WPA has carved out a new identity with a national and international scope, uplifting values of collaboration, experimentation, and inclusivity in all of its programmatic and operational activities. Learn more at wpadc.org.

Braids & Threads: Closing Day & Performance

Sunday, March 8, International Women’s Day

1-5 pm, performance begins at 3 pm.

WPA, 1350 Connecticut Ave NW (Storefront).  Metro: Dupont Circle (South Exit).

To honor International Women’s Day and the conclusion of their project with WPA, collaborating artists Monica Jahan Bose and Autumn Spears invite audiences to join them for a closing day performance that highlights their heritage and the fiber skills learned from women elders. The artists will lead a procession from WPA’s Project Space to Heurich House Museum in Dupont Circle, guiding the audience through a ritualized performance featuring garments and wearable art made by Bose and Spears during their residency. They will be joined by 12 participants and audience members are also welcome to take part. Bose and Spears’ procession functions as a solemn protest against racism and the active erasure of the multiple cultures and stories that make up the U.S. Audience members are encouraged to join the artists after for a closing celebration in the biergarten at Heurich House Museum. WPA’s Project Space will be open especially for this program from 1-5pm. Please arrive before 3 pm to view the exhibition, because several parts will be dismantled and used as part of the performance.  WPA’s new location in Dupont Circle, 1350 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington DC (storefront).

Gather at WPA’s Project Space (1350 Connecticut Ave NW) before 3pm. Latecomers should join the performance at Heurich House Museum (1307 New Hampshire Ave NW) or find the performers en route.

Braids & Threads: Closing Performance is presented in partnership with Heurich House Museum. 

Monica Jahan Bose is a Bangladeshi-American artist and activist whose work spans performance, painting, printmaking, film, and installation. Her socially engaged work highlights the intersection of climate, racial, gender, and economic injustice through co-created workshops,installations, and performances. She has exhibited her work extensively in the US and internationally including solo exhibitions at the Bangladesh National Museum and MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art Rome. She has been awarded five large-scale public art grants in DC, each centering community co-creation and featuring multiple workshops, film/projections, performances, and site-specific installation.

Her ongoing collaborative art and advocacy project Storytelling with Saris, started in 2012 with women farmers from her ancestral island village, has traveled to eight countries and 13 US states, engaging thousands of people. Her work has appeared in The Miami Herald, The Washington Post, BBC, Art Asia Pacific, The Milwaukee Sentinel, The Honolulu Star Advertiser, The Japan Times, Prothom Alo and all major newspapers in Bangladesh. The Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum has acquired a collection of her paintings, saris, woodblocks, and archival materials. She has a BA in studio art and mathematics from Wesleyan University, a diploma in art from Santiniketan, India, and a JD from Columbia Law School. She lives and works in Washington,

DC.

Autumn Spears is a DC native whose art serves as a powerful medium for reimagining Black histories and diasporic narratives. Her upbringing within communities of color, alongside her experiences navigating predominantly white institutions, has deeply shaped both her identity and artistic vision. Moving between these contrasting spaces sparked her commitment to exploring Black representation and identity across the African diaspora.  In 2020, she received her BFA in Art Education from Albright College. In 2023, Spears held her inaugural solo exhibition, Becoming, at the Freedman Gallery in Reading, Pennsylvania. This milestone event showcased her distinctive style and marked the beginning of a promising artistic journey. Additionally, Spears’ work has been featured in local cultural institutions such as the MLK Memorial Library, Charles Sumner School, Anacostia Arts Center, and the Anacostia Community Museum. Spears is also a 2024 DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities grant recipient and 2025 Art Bank finalist.

About WPA

Founded in 1975, Washington Project for the Arts (WPA) is a nonprofit incubator and laboratory for artist-organized projects, headquartered in Dupont Circle, Washington, DC. Since its founding, WPA has presented more than 500 exhibitions; 1,000 performances; 700 lectures, workshops, and symposia; 250 screenings; and 58 public art projects. Over the past four decades, nearly every major visual artist in the District has been part of WPA’s programming. After renewing its mission in 2018, WPA has carved out a new identity with a national and international scope, uplifting values of collaboration, experimentation, and inclusivity in all of its programmatic and operational activities. Learn more at wpadc.org.