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Now What?! Advocacy, Activism, and Alliances in American Architecture Exhibition Panels

 Collection
Identifier: Ms-2025-095

Content Description

70 panels total, comprised of 33 large, 25 medium, and 12 small foam core boards, with text and contextual information related to the history of activism and advocacy within architecture since 1968. The exhibition was curated by members of Now What?! - Architexx, including Lori Brown and Sarah Rafson. The panels toured throughout the U.S. from 2022 to 2024.

Dates

  • 2022-2024

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use

The copyright status of this collection is unknown. Copyright restrictions may apply. Contact Special Collections and University Archives for assistance in determining the use of these materials.

Reproduction or digitization of materials for personal or research use can be requested using our reproduction/digitization form: http://bit.ly/scuareproduction.

Reproduction or digitization of materials for publication or exhibit use can be requested using our publication/exhibition form: http://bit.ly/scuapublication.

Please contact Special Collections and University Archives (specref@vt.edu or 540-231-6308) if you need assistance with forms or to submit a completed form.

Biographical / Historical

"Now What?! Advocacy, Activism & Alliances in American Architecture Since 1968" was a traveling exhibition curated by the non-profit organization Architexx. The exhibition ties the design community to larger liberatory movements of the late 20th century by placing advances in design practice in a larger social and historical context. Now What?! sets grassroots, local, national, and global politics in relation to one another to educate and inspire a new generation of practitioners.

Architexx is a non-profit organization, co-founded by Lori Brown and Nina Freedman, that advocates for gender equity in the architectural profession. The group includes academics and architectural practitioners who support and promote inclusion and retention of women-identified, non-binary, gender non-conforming, and allied individuals in the field of architecture.

Extent

8.5 Cubic Feet (7 oversized flat boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

This collection consists of 70 exhibition panels with text printed on foam core detailing the history of organizational and grassroots activism in the architectural profession, marking changes in the profession and contextualizing them within national and global events.

Arrangement

Panels are not placed in any particular order; they are physically arranged by size, but otherwise there is no intellectual order other than the chronological progression detailed on the contents of the boards.

Source of Acquisition

Exhibition panels were shipped to Special Collections and University Archives in October 2025 by Architexx staff members.

Condition Description

Some boards were damaged during shipping and unpacking: adhesive material (for hanging) on the backs of the panels transferred to adjacent panels, and the act of separating the panels resulted in small areas where the top layer of the board was removed

Rights Statement for Archival Description

The guide to the Now What?! Advocacy, Activism, and Alliances in American Architecture Exhibition Panels by Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, is licensed under a CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/).

Processing Information

The processing, arrangement, and description of the Now What?! Advocacy, Activism, and Alliances in American Architecture Exhibition Panels was completed in November 2025.

Title
A Guide to the Now What?! Advocacy, Activism, and Alliances in American Architecture Exhibition Panels
Status
Completed
Author
Processed by Jade Snelling
Date
2025 (CC0 1.0)
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech Repository

Contact:
Special Collections and University Archives, University Libraries (0434)
560 Drillfield Drive
Newman Library, Virginia Tech
Blacksburg Virginia 24061 US
540-231-6308