Mary Hallam Pearse, Associate Professor of Art and Area Chair for Jewelry and Metals at Lamar Dodd School of Art, is featured in the AMEND virtual exhibition. AMEND commemorates the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, also known as Women’s Suffrage. This exhibition brings to the forefront the continued fight for true universal suffrage by promoting and supporting initiatives that combat voter suppression and advocate for expanding voting rights, while recognizing the work of the suffragists. To amend is to make minor changes in (a text) in order to make it fairer, more accurate, or more up-to-date. To amend is to modify (formally), to make better, to improve. To amend, is to put right.  

Secret Identity Projects invited 100 female (she/they) identifying jewelers to design a piece of jewelry using the “I Voted” sticker as a jumping off point; charged to interpret it any way they like. Jewelry artists and metalsmiths from all levels of career and expression, from emerging to master, are included in the exhibition. The work demonstrates a broad range of subject matter and concern, taking on a multitude of forms and making many declarations about voting equity and the messy and complex history that includes.

Pearse received her MFA in Metal from SUNY New Paltz and a BFA in Jewelry and Metals from Kent State University. Her work as been exhibited at the Rhode Island College in Providence and at the International Contemporary Jewellery Fair in Amsterdam. Pearse has taught workshops at the Anderson Ranch, 92nd Street Y, Kent State University, Humboldt State, East Carolina University, and University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Her work is represented by J. Cotter Gallery in Vail and Beaver Creek Colorado.