Yesterday marked the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which finally granted women the right to vote. To celebrate the milestone, a statue depicting real women was unveiled in Central Park—the first such monument in the park’s 167-year history. Sculpted by the artist Meredith Bergmann and commissioned by Monumental Women, the 14-foot-tall statue honors three key figures in the women’s rights movement—Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Sojourner Truth—who appear to be organizing, writing, and speaking, respectively, to signify the three essential elements of activism. Each woman had roots in New York, but died before American women gained the right to vote.

“It’s wonderful that now the city of New York and Central Park are focusing on seeing women’s accomplishments as worthy of statuary,” says Bergmann, noting the drastically low percentage of statues depicting women in the United States. According to the Smithsonian Collections Search Center, less than ten percent of the country’s outdoor sculptures depict historical women. And in Central Park, only fictional women such as Alice in Wonderland and Mother Goose had received statues until now.

“It’s long overdue,” continues Bergmann. “These three great and inspiring and incredibly hard-working activist women can inspire us to continue to fight for equal rights, for fairness and for justice for women, for minority groups, for people of color, for everyone now. My hope for little girls who see these statues is that they will be inspired to do serious work for social change with the knowledge that women have been doing this kind of work for centuries, and their rights descend from the work these women did.”

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What would it take to get you back to the movies? For us, it might just be LAYER’s new Sequel Seat. Helmed by Benjamin Hubert, the experience design agency updated the old-fashioned burgundy color palette to a modern one inspired by the midcentury pastels often seen in Wes Anderson films. Though the chair was in development before the onset of Covid-19, its innovations are perfectly suited for a post-pandemic world: antibacterial, popcorn grease–resistant copper threads in the upholstery, removable protective screens, and cutting-edge UV light technology for sterilization.

Beyond enhanced hygiene features, Sequel Seat takes the silver screen experience to a new level, from en-seat control panels that command seat temperature and recline to immersive headrest speakers to LED lights displaying the name of the reservation. “In today’s rapidly evolving entertainment landscape, it is essential for the cinema to offer an experience that is significantly differentiated from the growing streaming market,” Hubert says. “Sequel Seat’s enhanced comfort and essential safety features will help cinemas define themselves as a safe place where moviegoers can be transported to another world.”

Museums and galleries have finally started to reopen after six months of shutdowns. For art enthusiasts in quarantine who’d prefer to play it safe and avoid crowded public spaces, no matter the precautions being taken to avoid the spread of Covid-19, a wealth of resources exists online to get a quick fix of creative buzz.

Luckily, the full archives of the Peabody Award–winning PBS show Art in the 21st Century—the longest-running television series on contemporary art—are streaming online, thanks to the nonprofit organization Art21, which also produces the behind-the-scenes Extended Play series. With more than two decades of documentaries to choose from, including in-depth surveys of works by Theaster Gates, Kara Walker, and Hiroshi Sugimoto, deciding on one film may prove difficult. Tina Kukielski, the executive director and chief curator of Art21, shares her recommendations.

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