WE STAND: Celebrating the Women Who Changed the World From Our Neighborhoods

This fall, Village Preservation will bring a powerful new public art and history project to Washington Square Park: WE STAND, an installation celebrating remarkable women who lived and worked in Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo, and whose ideas, creativity, activism, and accomplishments changed the world. From Abigail Adams and Edna St. Vincent Millay to Marsha P. Johnson, Patti Smith, Jane Jacobs, and Sonia Sotomayor, WE STAND will celebrate women whose lives, work, and ideas have shaped our neighborhoods, our country, and the world.

By lifting up these remarkable women, WE STAND stands for the countless women, celebrated and unsung, whose ideas, creativity, courage, and determination have shaped and continue to shape our neighborhoods, our country, and the world. The women featured in the project represent just a few of the many whose contributions deserve to be seen, remembered, and celebrated. WE STAND is ultimately a celebration of all women and the extraordinary difference they have made, and continue to make, in the world.

As we mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of the United States in 2026, WE STAND offers an opportunity to consider whose stories have shaped our country and whose contributions have too often gone unrecognized. The women celebrated through this project remind us that history is not distant or abstract. It was made, and continues to be made, in the streets we walk, the buildings we pass, and the communities around us.

Some of the women featured are historical figures whose legacies continue to shape our lives; others are living women who continue to contribute to our culture and communities today. They include artists and writers, activists and preservationists, performers and community leaders. Their lives and work are part of the history of our neighborhoods, but their influence extends far beyond them, shaping American culture and contributing to a larger story of women whose ideas, creativity, courage, and determination have changed the world.

WE STAND will transform a section of Washington Square Park into an outdoor gallery and place of reflection. At its center will be a Women’s Arch, accompanied by large-scale portraits and stories presented on the park’s walkways. Together, the installation will invite New Yorkers and visitors to discover the extraordinary women whose lives intersected with these neighborhoods.

What connects these women is not simply that they lived or worked in the Village, East Village, or NoHo. It is that these neighborhoods offered opportunities and places where they could create, organize, challenge conventions, build communities, and pursue ideas that had an impact far beyond New York City.

The buildings, streets, parks, and gathering places where women lived and worked can provide essential context for understanding their accomplishments. Preserving those places allows us not only to protect architecture, but to preserve the stories and experiences that happened there.

WE STAND grows directly out of Village Preservation’s commitment to uncovering and sharing those histories. Our work has long sought to recognize people and communities whose contributions have not always received the attention they deserve, and to protect the places that tell their stories.

The project also builds on Village Preservation’s VILLAGE VOICES: “A Monument to Choice,” which was an interactive, experiential public art installation created by Village Preservation in 2022. Designed by Doyle Partners and constructed by MADE Design/Build, the physical platform monument was installed at Gansevoort Plaza in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District.

We invite New Yorkers and visitors alike to experience WE STAND in Washington Square Park this fall and winter, and discover the remarkable women who changed our world from right here in our neighborhoods.

WE STAND will be on display in Washington Square Park from November 11, 2026, and will culminate during Women’s History Month in March 2027.

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