On the Representation of the Visual Arts at NWSA

What commitment is the Association prepared to make to women\u27s studies in the visual arts? Judging from the 1981 Convention the question is not an easy one to answer. On the one hand, the program promised several exhibits and eight sessions involving visual materials; on the other, several of these plans were canceled or rendered ineffective by scheduling probl ems. The art gallery was closed, I was told, because the exhibit of tree-spirit masks failed to materialize and the space was too large for Brenda Verner\u27s Americana. Betty La Duke\u27s etchings and drawings were displayed in the busy Women\u27s Center lounge without adequate documentation. I never located the woodcuts by Blyth e Follet-Colon. Six of the eight sessions were scheduled in conflict with each other. The only session on Asian women artists was canceled. I assume that all these problems were the result of unfortunate but unavoidable circumstances. But my real concern is this: only two (or at most three) of the 272 sessions actually discussed works of art created by minority women. Surely such works should have been closer to the center of our attention at a Convention devoted to the task of understanding the effects of racism. Surely the works are not so well known that we can afford to pass over them without comment

Art by Women Made Accessible through Slides

Karen Petersen, American Women Artists: The Nineteenth Century (1979) Mary Stofflet, American Women Artists: The Twentieth Century (1979) Karen Petersen and Mary Stofflet, Women Artists: Sculpture (1979) Mary Stofflet and Karen Petersen, Women Artists: Photography (1980) Each set has 80 slides and is accompanied by notes and index. The American sets are $90.00 apiece; the others, 99.00, plus postage and handling. All are available from Harper and Row Media, 2350 Virginia Ave, Hagerstown, MD 21740, on a 21-day preview policy

The Regional Women\u27s Art Exhibit at Kansas

The Regional Invitational Women\u27s Art Exhibit at the University of Kansas was a solid demonstration of talent and artistic proficiency. Chosen by a committee of women artists at the university, the show emphasized variety in medium, style, and subject in the work of nearly 50 artists. Although there were a few explicit (and very good) explorations of female subjects, e.g., M. K. Baumgartel\u27s sculpture She—Apsaras II, Vicki L. Bourek\u27s vaginal stoneware wallhangings, and Marilyn Murphy\u27s Tornado Pattern in which a piece of a sewing pattern suggests a seamstress\u27s perspective on tornadoes, most of the works were not concerned directly with female experience. The selection reflected the still-current preoccupation with technique in the art world

Grass Roots Women\u27s Studies: Wisconsin Women in the Arts

By lucky accident, in September 1974 I saw a brochure announcing a conference to be held that October in Lacrosse, Wisconsin-a city 250 miles across the state. After I rubbed my eyes and looked again, the brochure still said that Elizabeth Janeway and Miriam Schapiro would be the featured speakers. Although I knew nothing about the brand new sponsoring organization, Wisconsin Women in the Arts (WWIA). I resolved to attend. I had assigned Janeway\u27s book in my course that fall and I knew Schapiro by reputation, though I had never seen even a print of her painting, and I had never spoken with any recognized woman artist about her own work. For me, as well as for many of the 212 people who attended that conference, the opportunity for face-to-face contact with these inspiring women was unprecedented. Schapiro showed slides not only of her own paintings, but also of work by other historical and contemporary women whose names we had not yet heard. Janeway\u27s lecture on images of women sparked fruitful and sometimes heated discussion about the artist\u27s responsibility to create new imagery for women. The conference also offered 15 workshops dealing with a broad range of practical, interpersonal and philosophical issues, led by professional women from all over the state; in addition, there were ten short performances in the media of dance, film, music and theater. The quality of the lectures was fine, as I had expected, but the excellence of the workshops and performances by Wisconsin women was even more influential. For many of us, the conference changed our lives, our patterns of commitment, our understanding of the place of the arts in society and our sense of what we might accomplish. Women returned from the conference with new energy to organize art exhibits, symposia, radio programs and other opportunities for women artists. One woman summarized the effect of the conference in a word: stimulating. She added Makes me want to work harder than ever. Our women are so talented