Events
“DC Art Now” Exhibition
DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, I St Gallery, 200 I Street, SE, Washington DC; metro: Waterfront
Hours: Monday -Friday, 9 am to 5:30 pm, from September 20-December 13, 2025
This is an exciting exhibition of art by DC area artists being considered for the Washington DC Art Bank public art collection to be displayed in DC government buildings. There are dozens of artists in the show, selected by a panel of 18 judges. We are thrilled to see the collaborative “Capitol Kantha” on display. It is made from a sari that was part of the 2019 WRAPture installation, then later worn by a Bangladeshi woman farmer on Barobaishdia Island, and then cut, layered in three, and embroidered, painted and printed by women of the island and Monica Jahan Bose. The original sari also has woodblock by people of DC. Saris are never discarded. When worn thin or torn, they are cut, layered in three, and embroidered into blankets, swaddles, shawls, and wall hangings called kanthas.
The 2024 Women’s Environmental Leadership Summit is a two-day virtual event hosted by Smithsonian’s Center for Environmental Justice at the Anacostia Community Museum. It will take place from October 18-19, 2024 via Zoom meetings. The summit aims to bring together individuals for mentorship, education, training, and leadership opportunities in the field of environmental justice.
Join Bangladeshi-American artist and climate activist Monica Jahan Bose for a hands-on workshop focused on the power of art and poetry to build climate resilience and hope. In this workshop, we will learn how to connect with the Earth and recenter ourselves towards unity with other creatures, soil, plants, and farmer women in Bangladesh, as part of the global climate justice art project Storytelling with Saris, ongoing for more than a decade. We will reflect on our own climate stories and actions, create short and long form poems, pledges, and writings, have a collective poetry slam, and transform our poems into visual poems incorporating imagery and color. The final works will be finished and shared on Day Two as a virtual exhibition and performance. The works will also be shared with the participants, the Smithsonian, and as part of the Storytelling with Saris project. No prior experience in poetry or art is needed. Please come ready to share your positive energy for the Earth and our sisters across the planet.
The workshop is in two parts — October 18 from 1:45 to 3:15 pm and October 19 from 1:45 to 2:45 pm.
Join the Storytelling with Saris team to help harvest the vegetables from the Nicholson Project neighborhood garden. We helped out in the garden in the spring and summer, and and are thrilled to go back to see what has been growing. We will do some earthing exercises with Monica Jahan Bose and work with the gardener in residence, Peter Lewis. Location: 2310 Nicholson St, SE, Washington DC. Buses B2, 32, 36. Free street parking available.
Peter Lewis is an avid gardener, artist, and chef. He has been working with Nicholson Project since 2022 and is the main point of contact for garden activities and distribution during peak growing season. Peter also manages seeds starts and runs the Community Composting Program at Koiner Farm in Silver Spring, MD.
Monica Jahan Bose is a Bangladeshi-American artist and climate activist whose work spans painting, printmaking, film, performance, and public art. Her socially engaged work highlights the intersection of climate, racial, gender, and economic injustice through co-created workshops, art actions, and temporary installations and performances. Bose uses the sari — a precolonial 18-foot-long unstitched garment that is always recycled and never discarded — to represent women’s lives and the cycle of life on our planet. She has exhibited her work extensively in the US and internationally (23 solo shows, numerous group exhibitions, and more than 25 performances) including solo exhibitions at the Bangladesh National Museum and MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art Rome. Her ongoing collaborative project STORYTELLING WITH SARIS with women farmers from her ancestral island village has travelled to 12 US states and eight countries and engaged thousands of people. Her work has appeared in the Miami Herald, the Washington Post, Art Asia Pacific, the Milwaukee Sentinel, the Honolulu Star Advertiser, the Japan Times, and all major newspapers in Bangladesh. She has a BA in the Practice of Art (Painting) from Wesleyan University, a post-graduate Diploma in Art from Santiniketan, India, and a JD from Columbia Law School.
The Nicholson Project is an artist residency program and neighborhood garden in Ward 7’s Fairlawn neighborhood. Its mission is to support, provide opportunities, engage, and amplify artists and creatives from our community and the local artist community—particularly artists of color and those from Ward 7 and 8—while engaging our neighbors through community-based programming. Its vision is to serve as a cultural hub and community anchor celebrating Ward 7’s authentic identity, while infusing new vibrancy into Southeast DC. We hope to inspire others to use similar non-traditional arts and community-centered projects as a pathway toward stronger, more vibrant communities.
Stortyelling with Saris is supported in part by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
The Business of Public Art
Friday, January 31, 2025
11 am – 12:30 pm ET
Virtual via Zoom
Join Public Art Coordinator Kerry Kennedy and three art professionals—Monica Jahan Bose, Jessie Himmelrich, and Antoine Williams—as they share their experiences navigating the unique challenges of creating art in the District. From communicating an artist’s vision to writing grant applications, engaging the community, and installing public art, the process demands a diverse and intricate skill set.
Discover what it takes to successfully navigate the Public Art Building Communities (PABC) grant application and bring stunning artworks to life in the Nation’s Capital.
For full details and to RSVP please visit dcarts.dc.gov or grab the direct link from our Linktree in our bio!
Storytelling with Saris workshops will take place in February 2025 in Bangladesh. The workshops will include sari printing, new kantha creations from worn saris from Storytelling with Saris, new song creation, and performance.
Please come to the unveiling of Monica Jahan Bose’s first ceramic sari, called “Rising,” which will be installed in the Kalorama Triangle alley behind her studio. The ceramic tile mural will be mounted on the garage wall of the home of Mary Miller and Dennis Farley. We will have an unveiling celebration on March 9 from 3-5 pm in the alley behind 2015 and 2017 Belmont Rd, NW. Monica’s studio will also be open and there will be a film screening of the performances that inspired the “Rising” ceramic work.
“Rising” speaks to our connection as humans with the outdoor environment, including the water, the trees, and other species. It is designed with ceramic tiles using the same techniques and design concepts as the Storytelling with Saris saris. As in the fabric saris, the border tiles feature woodblock patterns. The tiles were rolled out by hand out of reclaimed clay. Monica pressed her sari woodblocks into the wet clay to create impressions. These border tiles were then handpainted using wax resist technique. The middle tiles of the sari comprise a figurative painting that Monica painted by hand using glazes.
Monica worked with ceramic artist and fabricator Elle Brande of Moonlight Studios in Beltsville, Maryland to create the work over the course of several months. Monica and Elle were colleagues at Red Dirt Studio many years ago and Elle assisted Monica in some of her very first performances with saris. We are thrilled to share this brand new work with the community. It serves as a small-scale prototype for future projects.
It’s Earth Day on April 22 and Storytelling with Saris continues its tradition of organizing a workshop and gathering. Join us for a poetry, earthing, and art workshop at Kalorama Park in Adams Morgan. We will be doing movement and breathing exercises, writing some poetry, and making art on a sari. Workshop will be followed by a pizza picnic in the park. We will be at one of the picnic tables. Enter the park from Columbia Road to avoid stairs. Nearest building is 1851 Columbia Rd NW, Washington, DC 20009. Metro: Woodley Park-Zoo. Buses: 90, 96, 42, 43. Friends and family welcome!
If you have joined prior Storytelling with Saris workshops, please bring with you your folder of materials — journal, pencil etc. Looking forward to seeing you! Please email storytellingwithsaris@gmail.com with any questions or accommodation needs.
This project is supported by a grant from the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities.
Image from 2023 Earth Day Rally. Pictured, Lia Totty. Above: Image from 2024 Earth Day Workshop.
“Take Me to the Water” by Monica Jahan Bose. Curated by Beth Ferraro.
Location: Gallery Y, 1325 W St NW, Washington, DC 20009
Opening Reception: Friday, May 2, 2025 from 6-8 pm
Artist’s Talk and Workshop: Saturday, June 21, 2025 from 3-5 pm
Exhibition Dates: May 2-July 11, 2025. Gallery hours: Monday to Friday 7 am – 9 pm, Saturdays & Sundays 7 am – 7 pm.
Curator Statement:
Take Me to the Water is an invitation to listen to the stories Monica Jahan Bose has collected from Katakhali Village and Washington, DC that impact us all. This exhibit speaks to our deep connection to water, the need to protect it, and reminds us of our memories with water.
Bose’s saris and kanthas invoke a floating monument of community action and resilience. She brings together art, activism, and community engagement with each embroidered kantha, sari, poem, song, performance, and work on paper. This immersive experience blends together all these creative practices and highlights her commitment to her long-time collaborative project, Storytelling with Saris, which she began in 2012.
As a curator, I am drawn to how Monica Jahan Bose’s work is rooted in storytelling and the technique with which she engages traditional forms. As a water person, I feel a deep resonance with her incorporation of water as both subject and medium — its symbolism, its urgency, and its connective power across cultures and bodies.
Artist statement:
My work draws on my family’s roots in Katakhali Village, Barobaishdhia Island, which is surrounded by multiple rivers and the Bay of Bengal. After moving to the Washington area, I spent my youth with my friends exploring and playing at the C&O Canal, Great Falls, the Potomac River, and neighborhood pools. I discovered the Talking Heads in the late 1970’s in middle school, and listened to “Take Me to the River” all the time. Water is a recurring theme in my work, speaking to the essentiality of water to life, its healing properties, its centrality in climate change, and its ability to destroy our homes, crops, and heritage.
“Take Me to the Water” presents a new body of work in keeping with my continuing practice. I created a series of canvas paintings called “Water,” starting in 2006. My ongoing socially engaged project Storytelling with Saris works (started in 2012) involves working in collaboration with women from my ancestral island along with residents of DC to create saris, climate pledges, poems, performances, and installations that speak to the intersection of climate, gender, and racial justice. I use the precolonial sari as a symbol of sustainability and renewal. Blue saris represent water, pools, and rivers.
In this exhibition, I have created new work using painting, embroidery, woodblock, and collage, reusing saris from the Storytelling with Saris project, including a faded sari from the pool-shaped installation at the “Swimming”public art project (2024, Marie Reed Plaza and Aquatic Center). The saris from my ongoing work have been used in multiple installations and performances, and worn by Katakhali women. Several used saris were cut, layered in three, and embroidered by me and the Katakhali women to create “kanthas,” a traditional art form where Bangladeshi women recycle old saris to create blankets and wraps. Woodblocks that I have designed have been repeated on the saris, the works on paper, and the kanthas. The exhibition also includes a new performance film “Rising Up.”
“Take Me to the Water” speaks to our deep connection to water, and the need to protect our waters and our planet.
Artist Bio
Monica Jahan Bose is a Bangladeshi-American artist and climate activist whose work spans painting, printmaking, film, performance, and installation. Her socially engaged work highlights the intersection of climate, racial, gender, and economic injustice through co-created workshops, art actions, and temporary installations and performances. She has exhibited her work extensively in the US and internationally (24 solo shows, five large-scale public art projects, and more than 25 performances), including solo exhibitions at the Bangladesh National Museum and MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome.
Her ongoing decade-long collaborative art and advocacy project, STORYTELLING WITH SARIS, with women farmers from her ancestral island village, has traveled to eight countries and 12 US states, engaging thousands of people. Her work has appeared in the Miami Herald, the Washington Post, Art Asia Pacific, the Milwaukee Sentinel, the Honolulu Star Advertiser, the Japan Times, Prothom Al,o and all major newspapers in Bangladesh. The Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum has acquired a collection of her paintings, saris, and archival materials. Monica was an artist delegate to the COP28 climate conference in Dubai, presenting sari installations, workshops, and film screenings. She has a BA in the Practice of Art (Painting) from Wesleyan University, a post-graduate diploma in art from Santiniketan, and a JD from Columbia Law School.
Curator Bio
Beth Ferraro is a social art practitioner, curator, photographer, and creative facilitator with a focus on community impact and engagement. She has a BFA in Photography and Design from the Rochester Institute of Technology and worked in journalism as a Photo Editor with several publications, including Newsweek and Flaunt magazines. Following her time in New York City and Australia, she was the Creative Director and Curator at Honfleur Gallery and Vivid Solutions Gallery in Anacostia for seven years. Ferraro has also managed residency programs, artists’ studios, pop-up spaces, and placemaking projects in partnership with communities. Recently, she served as a Cultural & Art Coordinator for an Artisan in Residence pilot program with the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and the National Museum of Asian Art, working with artisans from Armenia, India, the United Arab Emirates, Mongolia, Tibet, Japan, and China.
Ferraro has worked with numerous organizations on site-specific public art initiatives, community projects, public programs, and art installations including the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Smithsonian’s Arts and Industries Building, Martha’s Table, Department of Energy and Environment, Culture House DC, Building Bridges Across the River at THEARC, Southwest Business Improvement District, Van Alen Institute, City First Foundation, and Washington Project for the Arts.
Since 2019, Ferraro has been the Creative Director & Curator at Gallery Y at the YMCA Anthony Bowen. Ferraro has lived in the District of Columbia since 2004. She is also a yoga teacher for seniors, a swimmer, a paddleboarder, a novice gardener, and an avid bicyclist.
This project is supported in part by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
Storytelling with Saris is thrilled to announce our participation in World Pride DC 2025 and our receipt of a World Pride grant from the Capital Pride Alliance.
. Link to press release from Capital Pride and World Pride DC 2025.
Weaving Resistance: Storytelling with Saris
In this moment of human rights crisis created by the Trump administration, it is imperative to build community and fight back for LGBTQ+ rights without apology or retreat. This year’s World Pride theme is The Fabric of Freedom. Textiles have served as modes of resistance for centuries, especially by women and other marginalized groups. Since 2012, the Storytelling with Saris collaborative art project has been using the cotton sari — a 19-foot-long unstitched garment— as a site of community expression of bodily autonomy and gender and climate justice. Cotton saris are covered in woodblock printing, stencils, painting, drawing, embroidery, appliqué, and poetry and then used for large scale installations and performances.
Over the last decade, Storytelling with Saris workshops, performances, and installations have engaged thousands of people in 13 U.S. states and 8 countries, including Bangladesh, Canada, France, Greece, and Italy. Recent Storytelling with Saris projects, performances, workshops, and roundtables in the U.S. and Bangladesh have specifically focused on LGBTQ+ issues, gender roles and identity, bodily autonomy, and increasing understanding and acceptance of gender-nonconforming persons through discussion, education, and collaborative art and performance.
For World Pride 2025, Storytelling with Saris will present five healing and empowering art and poetry workshops on gender/sexuality/identity to foster greater inclusion, empathy, and pride in this difficult political climate. The workshops will culminate in a community performance and march. We are partnering with Human Rights Campaign, Moms Clean Air Force, and Asian Pacific Islander Domestic Violence Resource Group.
Weaving Resistance: Storytelling with Saris Events:
Register for all events at this link on EVENTBRITE.
1. Workshop hosted by Moms Clean Air Force, 555 12th Street NW, May 16 from 5:30 to 7 pm
2. Display of artwork Prokash/Reveal Sari Scroll on gender/sexuality/identity at World Pride Welcome Center, 737 7th Street NW (Gallery Place Metro). Washington, DC 20021, from May 17-June 8, Open Saturday, May 17th & Sunday, May 18th
12:00 PM – 8:00 PM; Saturday, May 24th & Sunday, May 25th 12:00 PM – 8:00 PM; May 30th – June 8th, open daily from
12:00 PM – 8:00 PM
3. Workshop hosted by Asian Pacific Islander Domestic Violence Resource Group, May 29 from 6:00 to 7:30 pm
4. Drop in workshops at World Pride DC HQ hosted by Human Rights Campaign, 737 7th St NW, May 31, 12:00pm to 3:00pm and June 1 from 12:00pm to 2:00pm. Drop in and contribute to the World Pride saris with art and poetry.
5. Drop in workshop at the Human Rights Conference at JW Marriott, 1331 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, June 5 from 10 am to 2 pm
6. Outdoor “Weaving Resistance” community sewing performance, June 6 during the 17th Street Dupont Circle Block Party, 5 to 8 pm
7. Culminating event: international march with massive “Weaving Resistance” sari to the Capitol on June 8
The project is supported and sponsored by Capital Pride Alliance. Community. partners: Human Rights Campaign, Moms Clean Air Force, and Asian/Pacific Islander Domestic Violence Resource Project.
