We Will Not Whisper

Featuring Sarah Bearup-Neal, Kathleen Bechtel, Carrie Betlyn-Eder, Shanny Brooke, Margo Burian, Elaine Dalcher, Christy Dehoog Johnson, Tracey Easthope, Liz Barick Fall, Lori Feldpausch, Lauren Everett Finn, Mary Fortuna, Megan Kellner, Jessica Kovan, Nancy McRay, Wendy Kay McWhorter, Kathy Mohl, Shanna Robinson, Barb Schilling, Mallory Shotwell, and Nikki Wall.

Alluvion Arts presents We Will Not Whisper, an exhibition featuring 19 female visual artists, collectively responding to the ongoing erosion of civil liberties and democratic institutions in America.  The exhibition opens to the public on March 7,  5-7 pm inside Commongrounds, 414 E. 8th Street, Traverse City, Michigan, on the second floor. Artwork is exhibited on both the first and second floors of Commongrounds and varies in technique from painting to collage to assemblage and fiber. On view through April 11.

We Will Not Whisper arose when multi-disciplinary artist Margo Burian discovered the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025: Presidential Transition Project document.

“This exhibition is about direct experience of the effects of Project 2025 as viewed from the lens of the participating women artists,” said Burian, a multi-disciplinary artist based in Michigan. Many of the exhibitors are strongly associated with other subject matter, such as landscape painting, and were required to develop new ways of articulating strong feelings and perspectives about current events, subjects they would not usually depict. “Many of us, myself included, in our artistic practices have primarily focused on creating images of calm and serenity. Events over the past year have been anything but calm. The creation of art, especially in times of distress, gives us a visual voice and tangible way of processing real time events, but also a way to offer a different perspective.”

The exhibit was conceived in early 2025, when a group of Northern Michigan artists began to talk about the emotional and practical impacts of recent federal social and civic policy changes on their studio practices. Weeks of conversation lead to the idea of creating an exhibition that employs the visual arts to take on and reflect upon these difficult times. 

“At the center of We Will Not Whisper is the group’s recognition that our collective voice has power and volume,” Burian said.