The Griffin Museum of Photography is honored to present A Yellow Rose Project, a photographic collaboration of responses, reflections, and reactions to the 19th Amendment from over one hundred women across the United States. This traveling exhibition is on view at the Griffin’s Winchester galleries from October 2nd through November 30th, 2025. We had an opportunity to chat with co-curator and artist Frances Jakubek, and her responses are as follows.
Frances Jakubek is a photographer, curator and advocate for photography. She is the Director of Bruce Silverstein Gallery in New York City and past Associate Curator of the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, Massachusetts. Recent curatorial appointments include I Surrender, Dear at Umbrella Arts Gallery, New York; Drawing the Line at Bruce Silverstein Gallery, New York; Grief on NY Photo Curator, and The RefridgeCurator in Boston, Massachusetts. Her personal work focuses on self-portraiture and how the body is perceived within different contexts. Her photographs have been exhibited at The Southern Contemporary Art Gallery in Charleston, SC; Filter Space; Chicago, IL; Camera Commons in Dover, NH; and The Hess Gallery at Pine Manor College, MA. She has been a guest writer for various publications and for artist monographs including Serrah Russell’s tears, tears. Jakubek has been a panelist for the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Photography fellowships, speaker for The Photo Brigade and juror for exhibitions throughout the US including United Photo Industry’s ‘The Fence’ and PDN’s ‘The Curator Awards’.
Follow Frances Jakubek on Instagram: @franciepants
Follow A Yellow Rose Project on Instagram: @ayellowroseproject
Allison Huang: What inspired you and your co-curator, Meg Griffiths, to conceptualize and co-curate A Yellow Rose Project, and how has that vision evolved since then?
Frances Jakubek: The centennial felt like a moment of pure celebration…one hundred years of women’s right to vote. But as we learned more, we couldn’t ignore the inequality and erasure that still shape that history. Inspired by books like Odette England’s Keeper of the Hearth and Women of Vision, we invited a community of artists to join us in creating a collective voice through photography. Our aim was not only to honor the past, but to insist, right now, that women’s voices must be recorded and remembered, with hopes that is will be accessed in another 100 years.
AH: A Yellow Rose Project brings together over 100 female and nonbinary photographers. What challenges and rewards came with curating such a large and diverse body of work?
FJ: It has been an incredible gift to have over 100 artists commit their time and work to this project. From the beginning, we promised to create awareness for the work at no cost to participants, recognizing the frequent imbalances in labor and compensation that women in this field often face. The greatest reward has been the expansion of our community, connecting artists to one another, to us, and to audiences, even when many of us have yet to meet in person. Of course, with 100 contributors come logistical challenges, contracts, managing image files, and communications, but the camaraderie and support shared among this group make it all worthwhile.
AH: Do you think the symbolism of the yellow rose still resonates with contemporary audiences? Has its meaning evolved as new rights movements emerge?
FJ: The yellow rose remains a powerful symbol of justice and democracy. Yellow has long carried dual meanings like tenderness and femininity, as well as caution and hazard. In suffrage, it marked women who stood at the edge of safety to have their voices heard. Today, that history persists, reminding us that in a political climate not built in our best interests, we must continue to stand up for ourselves.
AH: In your contribution to A Yellow Rose Project, what inspired your use of image distortion to reflect the confusion and frustration caused by voter suppression?
FJ: These images are meant to mirror the barriers that continue to restrict voter registration. The distortion of the forms symbolizes the confusion and frustration created by suppression tactics, both past and present. Referencing the impossible literacy tests and timed exams of the past to today’s obstacles, such as redistricting, documentation hurdles, and rejected mail-in ballots, the obfuscation is intentional, reflecting how these measures are designed to discourage participation and silence voices.
AH: Five years after the 19th Amendment centennial, what does it mean to you to see A Yellow Rose Project still touring in 2025, and what does that say about the current state of women’s rights?
FJ: Each time we speak about this project, we confront the reality that the very right we set out to celebrate is now under active threat. When the work first launched in 2020, at the height of the pandemic, only a few exhibitions were possible, and many people were unable to experience them in person. In some ways, the book’s arrival five years later feels like perfect timing. We’ve been able to gather essays that situate the project in a moment when rights once assumed to be secure are being eroded. Presenting it now, in 2025, allows the work to be seen not only as a commemoration of suffrage but also as part of an urgent historical continuum of women standing up for their voices and futures.
AH: If this show were restaged in another 100 years, what do you hope future curators and audiences will see in it?
FJ: I hope they see the importance of community and the power of a collective voice. Creating images that are both personal and political is no small feat and sharing them publicly is an act of courage. At a time when so much history, especially the voices of women and people of color, is being erased, I want this exhibition to stand as proof that humanity shone through some of our country’s darkest moments. In a world often driven by greed and indifference, may future audiences recognize that artmaking itself is a form of protest, resilience, and healing.
Interview by Allison Huang, Curation and Exhibitions Admin Intern
Allison Huang is the Curation and Exhibitions Admin Intern from White Plains, New York. She recently graduated from Boston University with a B.A. in History of Art and Architecture and Biology, along with a minor in Visual Arts. With a passion for storytelling and audience engagement, she is dedicated to collaborating with artists to expand their creative potential while fostering more inclusive and dynamic artistic spaces. Her research interests include the work of lesser-known artists, the representation of marginalized communities in art, and issues of repatriation. In her creative practice, she works primarily with analog photography and oil painting.
Griffin Museum of Photography – Winchester, Massachusetts
