PR 26-0697

MURIEL BOWSER
    MAYOR
May 6, 2026
‘The Honorable Phil Mendelson
Chairman
Council of the District of Columbia
John A. Wilson Building
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 504
Washington, DC 20004
Dear Chairman Mendelson:
In accordance with section 2 of the Confirmation Act of 1978, effective March 3, 1979 (D.C. Law 2-
142; D.C. Official Code § 1-523.01), and pursuant to section 305 ofthe OfficeofAsian and Pacific
Islander Affairs Establishment Act of 2001, effective October 3, 2001 (D.C. Law 14-28; D.C.
Official Code § 2-1374), I am pleased to nominate the following individual:
                                      Ms. Monica Jahan Bose
                                        Belmont Road, NW
                                      ‘Washington, DC 20009
                                             (Ward 1)
for appointment as a public member of the Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander Community
Development, filling a vacant seat formerly held by John Tinpe, for a term to end April 17, 2028,
Enclosed, you will find biographical information detailingthe experienceofthe above-mentioned
nominee, together with a proposed resolution to assist the Council during the confirmation process.
I would appreciate the Council’s earliest considerationofthis nomination for confirmation. Please
do not hesitate to contact me, or Steven Walker, Director, Mayor’s Office of Talent and
Appointments, should the Council require additional information.
Sincerely,
M
Mayor
 ;
 3
                                                                        ~at the request of the Mayor
 4
 5
 6  A PROPOSED RESOLUTION
 7
 8
 9
10  IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
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12
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15   To confirm the appointment of Monica Jahan Bose to the Commission on Asian and Pacific
16  Islander Community Development.
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18  RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this
19   resolution may be cited as the "Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander Community
20   Development Monica Jahan Bose Confirmation Resolution of 2026".
21  Sec. 2. The Council of the District of Columbia confirms the appointment of:
22
23  Monica Jahan Bose
24  Belmont Road, NW
25  Washington, DC 20009
26  (Ward 1)
27
28   as a public member of the Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander Community
29   Development, established by section 305 of the Office of Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs
30   Establishment Act of 2001, effective October 3, 2001 (D.C. Law 14-28; D.C. Official Code§ 2-
31   1374), filling a vacant seat formerly held by John Tinpe, for the remainder of an unexpired term
32   to end April 17, 2028.
33  Sec. 3. The Council of the District of Columbia shall transmit a copy of this resolution,
34   upon its adoption, to the nominee and to the Mayor.
35  Sec. 4. This resolution shall take effect immediately.
                                       MONICA JAHAN BOSE
‘SELECTED SOLO & DUO EXHIBITIONS/INSTALLATIONS/PROJECTS
Braids & Threads: Connecting Legacies, Washington Project for the Arts, 2025-2026 (duo with Autumn
Spears; selected for inaugural exhibition and residency at new WPA space in Dupont Circle)
Weaving Resistance: Storytelling with Saris, Washington, DC, 2025 (series of workshops, exhibition,
performance and culminating march with 100-foot sari banner on gender/sexuality for WorldPride DC 2025;
selected for community grant as official presenter by Capital Pride/WorldPride)
Take Me to the Water, Gallery  Y, Washington DC, 2025 (curated by Beth Ferraro)
Choloman (Ongoing), Art Gallery at Aloki, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2024 (three-channel video installation with
workshops; part of artist exchange through US State Department Art in Embassies program, curated by
Ruxmini Choudhury)
Sustenance 2, Gallery Marion Chauwy, Paris, 2024 (duo with Anju Chaudhuri
Swimming, public art project, Washington, DC, 2024 (22 massive sari art works were cocreated with the
Public and made into swimming pool shape; a short film was screened outdoors for AdMo Movie Nights)
Climate Hope, presented by Arlington Arts (curated by Cynthia Connolly), 2024 (series of eight workshops
with Arlington Art Truck and culminating performance)
Choloman (Ongoing), Art Gallery at Aloki, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2024 (part of US Art in Embassies program)
Nourish: Storytelling with Saris, The Nicholson Project, Washington, DC, 2023
Pink Power (Carbon Free), Katzen Art Center, Ami in University, Washington DC, 2022 (workshops,
installation, and performance with students)
‘Sustain, public art project, Washington, DC, 2022
Renew, Kohl Gallery, Washington College, Chestertown, MD, 2021 (exhibition, studio visits, workshop/talk)
Concrete Dreams, public art project, Washington, DC, 2021 (workshops addressing racism, white supremacy,
the January 6, 2021 insurrection, our Constitution; art on fabric saris, small plaster sculptures, poetry slams)
Warming Waters, public art project, C&O Canal, Washington, DC, 2020 (saris, performances and projections)
‘The Tides/La Marea, MACRO Contemporary Art Museum of Rome, Rome, Italy, 2019 (exhibition, climate lab,
co-creation labs, and performance, curated by Simona Amelotti)
Subsistence, the Window, Paris, France, 2019 (residency, installation, and performance)
Seven Minutes on the B67, Open Source Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 2019 (workshops, installation, performance)
WRAPture, public art project, Anacostia, Washington, DC, 2019 (wrapping five DC buildings with 65 saris)
Footprint-Apotypoma, Serafio Sports, Culture, and Innovation Center, Athens, Greece (at the invitation of
the City of Athens), 2018 (large scale site-specific solo installation with workshops and performance)
And Then, Bangladesh National Museum, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2015 (multi-media installation and
performance with One Billion Rising Bangladesh)
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
                                   MONICA JAHAN BOSE
Fabric of Freedom, World Pride Welcome& Visual Arts Center, Washington, DC 2025
 Materialite et Heritage, Galerie Marion Chauvy, Paris, France (2025)
The Paglees: Between Reason and Madness, South Asia Institute, Chicago, IL, 2024 (inaugural show of new
feminist collective; organized and curated exhibition and catalogue); McColl Center, Charlotte, NC (2025)
Above Below Water, Culture House, Washington DC, 2023 (curated by Beth Ferraro)
Reimagining the Global Village, Milwaukee Institute of Art and D ign, Milwaukee, WI, 2021 (curated by
Nirmal Raja)
‘SELECTED PERFORMANCES
Weaving Resistance, Marie Reed Plaza and Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC, 2025 (outdoor performance
for World Pride DC 2025 with 100-foot-sari on gender/sexuality cocreated with the public)
Shui Shuta/Needle and Thread, University of Victoria, B.C., Canada, 2023 (created keynote mending and
sewing performance for Gendered Threads of Globalization conference)
Jalkonya (Water Woman), University of Dhaka, 2023 (in collaboration with Preema Nazia Andaleeb)
Light Your Fire, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, 2022 (series of workshops and culminating
performance with DC teens)
Prokash/Reveal, Brooklyn, NY, October 2021 (bilingual performance and workshops on gender/sexuality)
Offering, Siren Arts and Transformer Gallery, Asbury Park, NJ, 2021 (beach performance with 30 people)
The Tides/La Maria, MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome, Italy, 2019
Water Resistance, 2019, Paris, France, 2019 (performance with 20 people, in collaboration with ina Lune)
‘SELECTED PRESS
lan Kibria, “Monica Jahan Bose’s Swimming Installation Highlighted Historical Inequi jes and Communit
Resilience,” East City Art, July 10, 2024.
Mark Jenkins, "Shimmering Saris and Video Make Up Colorful Installation",” The Washington Post, June 14,
2024
Nylah Shah, “Artivist Monica Jahan Bose Creates Climate Hope," Business Standard, April 1, 2024
Mrittika Ghosh, "Reimagining South Asian Womanhood:A Review of the Paglees, Between Reason and
Madness,” Sixty Inches from Center, February 23, 2024
Malu Cursino, “We're Losing Our Culture and Heritage.” BBC News Online, November 30, 2023.
Mark Jenkins, “Stylish Saris Tell Tales via Linked Cultures,” The Washington Post, October 27, 2023
Deja Nycole and Maggie Walsh, “CONCRETE DREAMS: Envisioning a Sustainable Planet through Art and
Poetry, ” Dhaka Courier, Volume 37, Issue 51, July 2, 2021
Voice of America feature on Warming Waters, RTV network and online, September 10, 2020
Riley Board, “Eighteen Feet of Fabric Can Go a Long Way,” Smithsonian Magazine (Digital), August 12, 2019.
“Closing the Gap Between Communities in Similar Situations,” Good Morning Washington, ABC Channel 7,
April 8, 2019 (feature on WRAPture project)
Courtney Lindall, NRDC, “From Bangladeshto Brooklyn: a Clothing Exchange Inspires Climate Action’,
August 19, 2029
Ambika Samartya-Howard, “Fighting Climate Change with Art and Saris,” The Establishment, Nov. 26, 2018
Giorgos Mylones, “Monica Bose’s Footprint for the first time in Athens,” The Huffington Post, July 9, 2018
                                     MONICA JAHAN BOSE
Mark Jenkins, “Weather the Storm Images are Ominous Yet Reassuring,” The Washington Post, April 15,
2018
Meraz Mostofa, “A Picture, a Sari, and a Song,” The Dhaka Tribune Climate Edition, April 20, 2018
ARTIST'S BOOKS,
Renew (2020)
Rising Up to Climate Change (2018)
Her Words: Storytelling with Saris (2013)
‘SELECTED WORKSHOPS/LECTURE PRESENTATIONS
Yale School of the Environment, New Horizons in Conservation Convening, art and poetry workshop, 2024
Smithsonian Center for Environmental Justice, Women’s Environmental Leadership Summit, workshop, 2024
Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum, presentation and workshop, Washington DC, 2023
Presentation for Smithsonian Natural History Museum and Asian Pacific American Center, 2022
Artist's talk and film premiere of WRAPture: APublic Art Project at Kennedy Center REACH, 2021
‘Smithsonian Webinar “Making Art and Global interconnections,” 2020
Keynote Speaker for “South Asia and the World” series, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, Feb. 2017
COLLECTIONS
‘Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum and Smithsonian National Collection (2024 acquisition of
paintings, saris, and WRAPture project archives)
City of Washington DC, Public Art Collection and Art Bank Collection
Bangladesh Embassy in Athens, Greece
Private and non-profit collections in US, Bangladesh, France, Japan, Hong Kong, and U.K.
  ELECTED AWARDS & GRANTS
WorldPride DC Grant as Featured Artist, 2025,
Wherewithal Grant, Washington Project for the Arts (through Andy Warhol Foundation), 2022
Public Art Grants, DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, Swimming (2024), Sustain, 2022, Concrete
Dreams, 2021, Warming Waters, 2020, WRAPture, 2019
Artist Fellowships, DCCAH (with NEA), 2014, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Adjunct Professor, Studio Art Department, American University (2021-present)
EDUCATION
BA, Double major in Studio Art (painting) and Mathematics, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, USA
Post-Graduate Diploma in Fine Art (pai ing), Viswa-Bharati University, Santiniketan, India
Juris Doctor, Columbia University School of Law, New York, NY, USA
AFFILIATIONS
                                     MONICA JAHAN BOSE
Founding Member, The Paglees, feminist collective of South Asian American women across the U.S., 2023 to
present,
Board Member, Samhati, Bangladeshi Women’s Organization, Washington, DC, 2003 to present.
Board Member, South Asian Women’s Creative Collective, New York, NY, 2011 to 2016.
Member, VisArts Artists Advisory Council, Rockville, MD, 2020 to present.
Board Member, Sakhi for South Asian Women, New York, NY, 1991-1994,
        Executive Office of the Mayor— Mayor’s OfficeofTalent and Appointments
  John A. Wilson Building | 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, Suite 600 | Washington, DC 20004
                                      Monica Jahan Bose
                         Ms. Monica Jahan Bose is a Bangladeshi-American artist and activist
                         whose work spans performance, painting, printmaking, film,
                         performance, and installation. Her socially engaged work highlights the
                         intersectionofclimate, racial, gender, and economic injustice through co-
                         created workshops, installations, and performances, She has exhibited her
                         work extensively in the US and internationally including solo exhibitions
                         at the Bangladesh National Museum and MACRO Museum of
                        Contemporary Art Rome. Ms. Bose has been awarded five large-scale
                        public art grants in Washington DC, each centering community co-
                        creation and featuring multiple workshops, poetry _ slams,
                         film/projections, performance, and site-specific installation.
Ms. Bose’s ongoing collaborative art and advocacy project Storytelling with Saris, started in 2012
with women farmers from her ancestral island village, has traveled to eight countries and 13 US
states, engaging thousandsof people. Her work has appeared in the Miami Herald, the Washington
Post, BBC, Art Asia Pacific, the Milwaukee Sentinel, the Honolulu Star Advertiser, the Japan
Times, Prothom Alo and all major newspapers in Bangladesh. The Smithsonian Anacostia
Community Museum has acquired a collection of her paintings, saris, woodblocks, and archival
materials.
A Ward 1 resident, Ms. Bose earned her BachelorofArts in Studio Art from Wesleyan University
and her Juris Doctor from Columbia University.
                                GOVERNMENT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
                                   Executive Office of Mayor Muriel Bowser
                                                   wk  ok
                                                   WE ARE
                                                   WASHINGTON
                                              |
 Office of the General Counsel to the Mayor
To:  Kimberly A. Bassett, Steven Walker
 From:  Betsy Cavendish
Date:  May 4, 2026
 Subject:  Legal sufficiency reviewof Mayor's Order appointing members to the
                    Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander Community Development
 This is to Certify that this office has reviewed the above-referenced Order and found
 it to be legally unobjectionable. If you have any questions in this regard, please do not hesitate
 to call Kimberly Ulan, Associate General Counsel, Executive Officeof the Mayor, at 202-727-
 2292, or me at 202-724-7681.
 The John A Wilbon Building >  Tvania Avenue, NW > Suite300” > Washington, DC   WOH» Office(203) TRLTERT