The project, which launched on International Women's Day 2023, began with a simple realization by a mother.
"I was reading bedtime stories to my daughter - Caillou, Curious George, Babar... and recognized those moments as a powerful, teachable time, and I thought it would be great to use a little of that time to tell her about 'great women' of Nova Scotia.
But - after being a journalist for a dozen years in a Nova Scotia newsroom - not a single 'great woman' came to mind, says Napier, a Nova Scotia-based portrait artist and former journalist and technology author.
"I had nothing to give her - no great stories bubbled up."
What she did have was time. She was at home, for the first time since she began her professional career as a journalist - so she started, in her free moments, researching Nova Scotia's pioneering women.
"I went to the downtown Halifax library; left a note for a reference librarian who'd help me with research for a book I'd done for Harper Collins based on interviews with women tech leaders. And..itt turns out if you leave a note like that - "I want to research the great women of this province. Any leads or suggestions?" - that's like catnip for female librarians!
"I got a list back of 25 women I'd never heard of - all fascinating, accomplished pioneers of this province who'd never made the history books and were totally hidden from my understanding of Nova Scotia's history."
Napier started researching them, painting them and, ultimately producing as series of "Great Women portrait shows" which she held at the provincial archives' gallery.
Men liked the shows, she said.
But: Women?
"Women really loved seeing the portraits, reading the women's stories." And, Napier says, the women who came to her portrait shows made it clear: they wanted more. They left her notes. They asked if the shows could tour; if it could visit schools and universities; if the portraits could be displayed in public locations.
"They left all these requests in the comment books I left at the back of the room at my 'great women' portrait shows. I could feel their hunger. I recognized it, I guess, because I felt that hunger it too. All these great women whose faces I'd never seen, whose accomplishments I'd never known. It just seemed like such an significant gap in our consciousness."
(After The Royal Bank acquired 'The Nova Scotia Nine' portraits for their national art collection, the Nova Scotia government created a beautiful book about them.)
As her daughter grew older - and asked her if they could turn the closet under the main floor stairs into a 'science lab', Jo started researching the women who'd pioneered paths in traditionally male-dominated domains like science, tech, engineering, math (STEM) and medicine.
Because Napier's first, large-scale, collection of Great Women portraits now hung in a beautiful boardroom on the Halifax waterfront, Jo asked RBC Dominion Securities if she could hold a meeting in their "Nova Scotia Nine" boardroom.
"I wanted to see if my idea resonated; had traction with a diverse group of women...community, government and industry leaders." Her idea was this: invite business, STEM and community leaders, primarily women - but men, too, if the idea resonated with them - to hang great women's portraits in public and professional spaces.
RBC Dominion Securities staff said they preferred "The Nova Scotia Nine" boardroom for meetings because the artwork created an extra dimension in that professional environment: "They told me the portraits and stories were conversation starters ...and shaped the space in a powerful way."
If she was going to ask an assortment of busy professional women to give her an hour of their time, she wanted to give them something meaningful at the end of the meeting: a keepsake that resonated.
So Napier got a small grant and used it to create - for each meeting participant - individual little place settings... packages, each wrapped in a lovely long peony pink ribbon, that contained:high-quality handouts of Napier's "Great Women portraits"; a beautiful booklet that captured, in simple and clear language, what the project was about; a copy of the book Invisible Women, which captures data on how the world is designed for me - and the impact that bias has on women.
"I also wanted to include in their takeaway gift something whimsical - so it wasn't all...'Here's the project concept. Here's the artwork. Here's the hard data that underscores why it's vital we try and help shape a more inclusive world." She remembered a favorite pin she used to wear that said: "Uppity Women Unite" and she went online to order some from a small company in California. On that California company's website, Napier noticed - beside the pins, a picture of a woman - "looking very Sixties mod, in a mini-skirt, wearing the 'Uppity Women Unite' pin. I thought: Is she the women who designed this great pin, back in the day..?"
In fact, the blond woman wearing the pin was none other thabn Frances 'Poppy Northcutt' - according to the pin maker, and Poppy was "the first female engineer in NASA’s Mission Control... who went on to fight for equal rights for women."
Napier's journalistic instincts kicked in: "I was in my kitchen, in my pajamas, researching Poppy for more than an hour - such a fascinating person - and decided to send her a message via LinkedIn. My thinking was: I love this project idea - the idea of creating a constellation of women leaders who'd hang portraits of great women.
"But I really wanted a feminist STEM icon as my 'North Star' for the project. When I saw Poppy - wearing my pin - it felt like a sign: here's your North Star."
When they spoke, Poppy asked how she could help and Napier said she'd like to bring a 30-second video clip to the meetings that inspired women to act.
"Poppy Northcutt created this 2-minute video that rocked the room. It moved many of the women at those meetings to action. It moved a few - so they told me later - to tears."
Afterward, Napier asked a dozen women to come on board the project and, within an hour or so of her ask, 10 signed on.
Two of the ten were Dr. Katharina Kieser, QEII gynecologic oncologist, and community health leader Dr. Margaret Casey. They became part of a 4-member group that, collectively, commissioned one of the first Great Woman portraits.
Next, Napier, received a call from Vienna. The woman at the end of the line was Rumina Velshi, then head of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, who "said she'd heard about the project, and wanted the Canadian nuclear sector to be part of it."
In a collaborative effort, Velshi and 4 other female industry leaders (listed below ***) commissioned an oil painting of Canada’s first female nuclear physicist, Harriet Brooks.
The intent of commissioning the portrait - and displaying Harriet Brooks portrait prints in the boardrooms or main reception areas of 30 largest nuclear corporations - was, said Velshi, "to recognize and celebrate the remarkable contributions of women in the nuclear industry, and more broadly in STEM and shine a spotlight on the achievements of women in nuclear, including scientists and engineers. "
Next on board was Sanofi Pharmaceuticals. Alerted to the project by a local medical leader, Sanofi's interest was centred on honouring polio pioneer Leone Farrell with a portrait for their new conference centre and historic gallery.
By year 2, Lockheed Martin Canada was among the companies and leaders who had joined the project, commissioning an original Great Woman portrait of Mary Ann Shadd for their Ottawa headquarters, and portrait prints of a various historic female pioneers for their offices across Canada.
And Napier started to carry the project across the Canada-U.S. border by honoring American STEM icons like Glady West an sharing her portrait with U.S. leaders and STEM organizations .
In Year 3, the project's first sponsor was Parkwood Home Care CEO Lorna MacMillan, who commissioned a portrait of nursing pioneer and statistician Florence Nightengale, and more Canadian-based business and community leaders will be invited to join the project in 2025 - with a new focus on securing sponsorship among female CEOs in the U.S., primarily in STEM-related fields. As well, Napier's Great Women print collections (eg Great Women of STEM, Great Women of Canada, and Great Women of Medicine, collections reflecting portraits already commissioned and now hanging in public spaces, university libraries, boardrooms and CEO's offices across Canada), will continue to expand with new original portrait commissions.
"We don't know the history of great women because men were the record keepers. That omission is an opportunity to educate. Art has always been a powerful too in that regard. We're use portrait art to help close a gap in our consciousness ... everyone who participates in this project shares a similar belief: that we can't afford a gender gap especially in STEM fields anymore. We need all our talent at the table solving the world's problems."
"So we're working to educate, to inspire, to reveal our hidden history. We want girls and young women - and boys and young men - when they think of scientists or inventors or STEM innovators - to see a female face, too."
