Minnesota Women in Washington – The Beginning – Persistence Exhibit

Anna Dickie Olesen

In 1922, Anna Dickie Olesen (1885-1961) ran for the US Senate as a Democrat from Minnesota. She was the first woman in the United States to run for Senate as the endorsed candidate of a major party. Her opponents were Republican incumbent Frank Kellogg and DFLer Henrik Shipstead. Olesen campaigned all over the state and said, “I ask no consideration because I am a woman. I also ask that no one close his mind against me because I am a woman.” Shipstead won the election with 47% of the vote, but Olesen remained politically active.

Olesen was a powerful speaker. She was the first woman to serve on the Democratic National Committee (1917-1924). When Franklin Roosevelt became president, he appointed her as the only woman on the New Deal’s Emergency Council. Minnesota did not send a woman to the US. Senate until 2007 with Amy Klobuchar. Tina Smith became Minnesota’s second female senator in 2018. She was appointed in 2017 to finish out the term of Al Franken when she had been serving as Lieutenant Governor.

Minnesota elected its first woman representative to Congress in 1954 when voters in the ninth Congressional district (now the seventh) elected Cornelia Genevive Gjesdal “Coya” Knutson (1912-1996). She served from 1955 to 1959. Before her time in Congress, she served in the Minnesota Legislature for two years.

MINNESOTA WOMENT IN WASHINGTON – REPRESENTATION GROWS  

About the Artist – Sadie Ward

I believe that the message is in the medium of art, and I strive to use recycled/repurposed materials. I want you to think not just about aesthetic level, but additionally about where it came from. I repurposed fabric from donated/used bras to create a fabric collage portrait. Often when I think of the suffrage movement, I am inspired when I think of everything they accomplished while wearing restrictive corsets. The suffrage movement represents a breaking of bondage, I believe the shift from corsets to bras also represents that breakage from bondage. While it seems taboo to highlight bras, undergarments are generally something very personal, yet is also very universal. Voting is the same; very personal, yet universal at the same time. We all know a bra is there for support, and I believe that through the medium of bras, viewers could reflect on what it means to support women to participate in politics.  Social change takes the work of many people. As a Minnesotan, I’m proud that the the first woman nominated to run for Senate is from Minnesota. I hope my unusual bra art helps you remember the name Anna Dickie Olson and gives you a reason to bring her up in conversation. We stand on the shoulders of women who came before us.

I believe that through the medium of bras, viewers could reflect on what it means to support women to participate in politics.

Bras donated by Molly Cummins, Mary Kunesh-Podein and others.

 

Artist Bio

Sadie Ward is a local artist, you may have seen some of her scenic and prop design work at Park Square, Theatre in the Round, Theatre Unbound, Theatre Pro Rata, The Phipps, Stages Theatre Company, Lyric Arts and Minnesota Opera. In our disposable modern world, she tries to incorporated recycled and upcycled elements into her theatre designs and art work. She recently won the Habitat for Humanity Upcycle challenge. She was also a judge on the 2019 Les Farrington Best 100 Juried Art Show. Sadie has also worked as a paint instructor at Wine and Canvas.