There have been many different kinds of women’s art organisations. In this lesson, the distinction between women’s art and feminist art will be explored again by considering the politics and practices of different women’s art organisations around the world.
In part 1 of this lesson, you are asked to explore the different forms that women’s art organisations have taken.
Some of the forms of women’s art organisations are recognisable as:-
- Museums (private)
- Commercial Galleries
- Not-for-profit Galleries
- Festivals
- Biennales
- Informal groups of women artists (or women artists’ associations)
- Non-Governmental Organisations/Charities
- Networks
- Archives/libraries/public information centers
There are many types of women’s art organisations. Some operate as a hybrid of some or all of these models, dependent on their history, funding, opportunities, policies and strategies.
Some organisations for women artists are centred on running a gallery and offering a programme of events. Some offer residency opportunities, mentoring, workshops and/or training.
Other women’s art organisations operate as campaigning groups and protest groups. Others are focused on actions and interventions in public spaces.
Some women artists’ collectives work together to produce collective forms of art or performance.
Some women collectives founded art magazines, like Heresies (USA) (1977 – 1996).
Some organisations are focused on the production of an annual festival for women in the arts, like Mujeres de artes visuales: Women in the Visual Arts (Spain) or City of Women Festival, Slovenia (Slovenia) .
One of the key features of feminist art organisations – as opposed to women’s art organisations – is that they have been built on co-operative or collective decision-making processes. Changing women’s manner of working away from hierarchical models into collective decision-making and co-operative action, sharing tasks and skills is not an easy process. The idea of women working collectively and co-operatively together has been a strength in the women’s art movement and a distinctive feature of feminist organisations, but it would be an illusion to say that this collective manner of working has been easy or that it exists without struggle or arguments between women, both personally and politically. The redefinition of this relationship between the personal and the political, however, was central to feminist struggle in challenging the status quo and models of organisation which did discriminate against women or left them without a voice in decision-making in arts organisations or in marginalised roles.
This discussion about the difficulties women faced in working together in feminist collectives is visible in two sites looking back at the history of projects that started in the 1970s, ReTracing the Feminist Art Program and The Women’s Building, Los Angeles, USA.
Since the mid-19th Century, there have been many women artists’ associations. Many were set up to provide exhibition opportunities for women artists because they were marginalised or excluded from the national Academies or alternative Salons of the day. In their founding moment, many of these national associations were recognised as “feminist” in motivation and intent because they were supporting women artists in the face of limited exhibition opportunities. Many of these women artists’ associations also played a key role in the late 19th C in campaigning for women to be admitted as students at the Academies, because most refused their entry for most of the 18th and 19th C.
This form of association continues today and there are still many women artists’ associations around the world which continue this 19th C tradition. However, in most countries, these associations and their large annual exhibitions are widely regarded as conservative institutions today. The criticism of conservatism is partly to do with their 19th C model of organisation, which require membership and subscription as well as fees for works exhibited, and partly to do with these associations’ concentration on small portable works of art for sale in their exhibitions. While these associations, like the Academies or numerous art societies that did not admit women artists in large numbers for many years, have selection committees for their exhibitions, the chosen works are generally not hung in a “curated” fashion, nor are they arranged to display tendencies or issues. The same criticism is also made about large group shows by other forms of artists’ association. This criticism is rarely about the gender of the producers. However, the rationale for women artists’ associations to continue to hold separate exhibitions for only women artists was increasingly questioned when only the gender of the artist linked the works on display.
The association model did not continue amongst the small avantgarde groups of the early twentieth century. These groups held exhibitions together in commercial galleries and other hired spaces, curating the show themselves and sharing the costs of organising the exhibition, producing a catalogue, organising the publicity and opening events. This group model became the norm for most of the twentieth century for avantgarde artists to present their work to a public for the first time. It is this model of organisation which most contemporary women artists’ groups have adopted to organise exhibitions since the 1970s. It remains the pre-dominant model for groups of artists to organise their own exhibitions. The question usually raised about these exhibitions is whether being a woman artist is sufficient criteria to organise a group show with other women artists, when so often the works on display are so different? The other question frequently raised is how does the theme or idea behind the group show relate to being women artists exhibiting together?
While the large national women artists’ associations did at times act like Unions in their early days, there are very few examples of national and international women artist’s unions.
An exception is the caucus model of the Women’s Caucus for Art in the USA. Organised by state caucuses, and holding an annual conference and exhibition programme, the WCA attempted to draw women artists together across the USA. They gained UN recognition as an NGO and continue to operate today.
Read: Eleanor Dickinson ‘The History of the Women’s Caucus for Art’ in Kathy A.Halamka and Karen Frostig (eds) BLAZE:Discourse on Art, Women and Feminism (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2007)
In the UK, attempts to found an Artists’ Union in the early 1970s were important, as was a small sub-group organised from its ranks, the Women’s Workshop of the Artist’s Union, which was important in the history of feminism in the UK.
In the late 1980s-mid 1990s, a network of women’s art organisations in Europe, founded the International Association of Women in the Arts. This network tried to use the focus of the European City of Culture to organise a festival or events for women artists in each city, bringing attention to women artists as part of the official programme. This lasted for several years very successfully. Many of these organisations were membership-based: Women Artists’ Slide Library, SVBK, Bildwechsel, Eva and Co.
A relatively new museum network is the International Association of Women’s Museums Founded 2012 in Alice Springs, Australia – registered office at Frauen Museum, Bonn. This organisation’s map provides an overview of Women’s Museums – very few of which are art museums, most are museums of women’s history/culture. Some of the projects on the museums’ map exist only as potential projects, others’ are virtual museums.
Recognising that many commercial art galleries did not represent women artists, several collectives of women artists, have formed art galleries. These galleries continue the model of artist-organised groups, developing different forms of review and criteria for selection of women artists for solo exhibitions and group shows. Some have organised permanent spaces, others have moved spaces frequently.
The history of the A.I.R.: Women’s art cooperative gallery demonstrates this model of collaboration and collective action developed by a group of women together. La Centrale, Galerie Powerhouse in Montreal, operating for more than forty years, is another example, as is Woman Made Gallery, Chicago (USA) or Schokofabrik, Frauenzentrum Schokoladenfabrik e.V., in Berlin.
There have been many groups of women artists who have organised temporarily or permanently small art galleries for women artists.
Most of these arts organisations for women artists operate as not-for-profit galleries and are run by small committees. They continue to operate with voluntary labour of women and with open calls to provide opportunities for a wide range of women artists.
This model is different from the mainstream commercial model in which women dealers or curators have set up and run commercial galleries: some of which have chosen to show considerably more women than men in recent years. There is also a long history of women working as highly successful commercial dealers and running their own galleries, since the beginning of the 20th C. Today there are several associations for women art dealers (Association of Women Art Dealers, 2009) and women curators who represent numerically the majority in the profession as a whole, even though they may not always be heading the “top” (high-earning/largest budget museums or art galleries) or the most “visible” in the media. See by contrast: 16 Women Curators ArtNet News item in 2016 and The Gender Gap in Art Museum Directorships report
There is a network of women’s museums, whose focus is on women’s history. Occasionally these women’s museums, which largely arose because of women’s studies, organise art exhibitions or include artworks in their exhibitions.
There are very few museums of women’s art in the world.
The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC was set up in 1987 around a private collection. It has a building, a library, an exhibition programme and an events programme. It has a broad historical focus and has held many historical as well as contemporary exhibitions.
The Frauen Museum in Bonn was set up by Marianne Pitzen in 1981. It has a building, organises exhibitions, runs workshops, has artist’s studios and an events programme. It’s focus is on contemporary women artists.
Das Verborgene Museum in Berlin was set up in 1984 to focus on women artists whose lives were disrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War.
There are several museums in the world dedicated to an individual woman artist’s life and work: Kathe Kollwitz Museum (Berlin), Barbara Hepworth Museum (Tate, St Ives, UK), or Paula Modersohn Becker or Frida Kahlo or Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden (Italy).
Many discussions have been organised at different times about whether the model of a woman’s museum represents a specialisation and focus for women’s art or whether it contributes to their ghettoisation and continuing marginalisation.
There are many online projects about women artists which collect and collate information about women artists as databases and websites. Some are simply resource sites, offering pages on individual women artists and their works and trying to establish a presence for women artists online.
Others are membership organisations. Many women artists join these organisations to gain visibility for their work (or a web presence) and to find a community of artists with whom they might work.
There are also an increasing number of organisations for women artists offering training, mentoring, artist-in-residency opportunities or workshops.
The key questions you might want to explore about these online resources are:
who are they for? the members? a wider public?
and what levels of exchange or service do they provide for women artists?
Part 2 > looks at some online resources where the history of women artists’ groups are discussed.
Part 2 > Part 3 >
n.paradoxa’s website has a list of links to many websites of women artists’ groups.
http://www.ktpress.co.uk/feminist-art-links.asp
Below are some selected recommendations for exploring different kinds of women’s art organisations
KKS, ”Kvindelige Kunstneres Samfund” / Danish Women Artists Association (Denmark) (Copenhagen, founded 1916) Celebrating 100 years of activity supporting women artists in Denmark in 2016
Mujeres de artes visuales: Women in the Visual Arts (Spain)
OWL, Frauenkunstforum-Archiv (Germany)
a kunstverein in Bielefeld,Germany of women artists from the region
Schweizerische Gesellschaft Bildender Kuenstlerinnen, SGBK * (Switzerland)
Vereinigung Bildender Kuenstlerinnen Oesterreichs (VBKO) (Austria)
Women in the Arts, Singapore (WITAS) (active between 1999-2005) (Singapore)
Womens Caucus for the Arts (USA)
A national organisation for women in the arts
Women’s Arts Association / Cymdeithas Celfyddyau Menywod (Wales, UK)
ff (Austria)
The Temporäre Autonome Zone is an independent experimental exhibition platform produced by Lisa Ruyter with ff, a group of international women artists who meet regularly to collaborate on feminist projects. Based at Galerie Lisa Ruyter, Vienna.
h.arta (Romania)
h.arta is a group of 3 women organising projects in Romania since 2001.
Hackney Flashers (archive of women’s group from 1974-1980) (UK)
Members were: An Dekker, Sally Greenhill, Gerda Jager, Liz Heron, Michael Ann Mullen, Maggie Murray, Christine Roche, Jo Spence and Julia Vellacott. Site documents two main projects Women and Work (1975) and Who’s Holding the Baby? (1978).
Mit: archive 2001-2008 (Switzerland)
a Zurich based group of 11 female artists, organising interventions in public and private spaces
Mujeres Publicas (Argentina)
a feminist activist group, organising projects in Argentina
Old Boy’s Network (Germany)
For cyberfeminist papers with information on Documenta X’s Cyberfeminist International
Womanifesto (Thailand)
an woman artist’s workshop project in Thailand
Feminist Art Networkers (Auckland), Archive, 1982-1987, at Auckland Art Gallery – Toi o Tamaki (New Zealand)
A.I.R.: Women’s art cooperative gallery (USA)
founded in 1972 located in New York City
Assemblage: The Women’s New Media Gallery (UK)
(1995-2005) curated by Carolyn Guertin, for trAce Online Writing Community
Frauenkunstforum (Germany)
a kunstverein centered around Hagen in N.Germany
La Centrale, Galerie Powerhouse (Canada)
Montreal women artists gallery started in 1973
Schokofabrik, Frauenzentrum Schokoladenfabrik e.V., (Germany)
Studio XX (Canada)
a feminist socio-cultural intervention group dedicated to provide women with access to digital technologies in Montreal, Canada
The Women’s Building, Los Angeles, USA (USA)
see also e-book From Site to Vision
Woman Made Gallery, Chicago (USA)
Womanhouse (USA)
Faith Wilding’s site about the Womanhouse (Los Angeles, 1972) project, with works, photos, essays describing it.
Women’s Museums
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum (USA)
Frauen Museum (Germany)
Frauen Museum organises and hosts exhibitions in its premises in Bonn. Founded by Marianne Pitzen, since 1981, the organisation has organised several 100 exhibitions on women’s art.
Kvindemuseet i Danmark/ Women’s Museum in Denmark (Aarhus, Denmark) The Museum houses the KiK (Kunst I Kultur) archives comprising documentation from the Women’s Festival in Copenhagen in 1980 and owns works from the Danish Women Artists Association
Museum Anna Nordlander (Sweden)
a collection of feminist/ women artists work from Sweden
National Museum of Women in the Arts,Washington DC (USA)
also runs the Clara database on women artists
New Hall Collection, Cambridge (UK) the largest collection of women’s art in Europe – a collection, not a museum!
Networks
Bild-Rausch (Germany)
an internet project to present and network women working in new media, led by Ulrike Rosenbach
Faces: Women, Art, Technology (Austria, International)
Although the website has not been updated since 2013, and only older postings can be found there, the email list continues for current members.
Women’s Environmental Artists Directory (USA)
World’s Women On-line (USA)
a project by Muriel Magenta
Archives of Women Artists’ Work
Bildwechsel / Kunstlerinnenarchiv (Germany)
the major archive in Hamburg of women’s art, founded in 1979
Cinenova (UK)
Cinenova is Britain’s only women’s film and distribution agency, a non-profit company, founded in 1991, from a merger between Cinenova and Cinema of Women (see Felicity Sparrow, interview, ‘Forming Circles’ n.paradoxa vol.34, July 2014)
Make: formerly Women’s Art Library in the UK (UK)
now an archive only and part of Goldsmiths’ College Library in London
Women’s Art Register (Australia)
Founded in 1975, Women’s Art Register is an archive of women artists in Australia.
Glasgow Women’s library (UK)
a resource centre (Lesbian and Information Centre) in Glasgow, Scotland.
Women’s Art Resource Centre (Canada)
Was an active centre for women artists until 2014. Website has closed.
Training Associations/ Foundations
Goldrausch-Kuenstlerinnen (Germany)
This is an 11-month educational/residency programme women artists’ network/project based in Germany for women artists professional development in Berlin. It is funded by the women’s foundation, Goldrausch e.v.,
Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art Inc. (Canada)
a Canadian initiative for women artists
Women Art Resources of Minnesota (WARM)
Women’s Studio Workshop (USA)
since 1974 has provided working studios, artists residencies, artists book publishing. Located in the Hudson Valley ninety miles from NYC.
