Lecture: Artists Celebrate Suffrage by Sabrina Gschwandtner

The National Arts Club presents an artistic celebration of suffrage. Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute Curator Mary Murray showcases three artists and their work, linking contemporary issues to 19th-century practices. Panelists include artist Sabrina Gschwandtner, artist Lesley Dill, and Linda Ferber, Director Emertia and Senior Art Historian, New-York Historical Society.

"Celebrating Suffrage: Women Artists from the Collection" by Sabrina Gschwandtner

Celebrating Suffrage: Women Artists from the Collection

Munson Williams Proctor Art Institute
310 Genesee Street
Utica, NY 13502

February 28 - April 19, 2020

Celebrating Suffrage marks the 100-year anniversary of Congress’s ratification of women’s suffrage, the right for American women to vote in all government elections. Overnight, this momentous event enabled the disenfranchised half the population to participate in the electoral process of American democracy.

The Museum of Art honors the dedicated tenacity of suffragists in organizations from the National American Woman Suffrage Association to the Nation Association of Colored Women to gain the rights women exercise today.  All of the artwork on view is from the Museum’s collection or was created by women in the full-time Pratt MWP faculty. Women found unique creative outlets before and after they were officially recognized as full citizens of the United States. This exhibition explores the role of art as a vehicle for women, as individuals or in groups, to reflect, reform, or challenge social beliefs and political practices of their era.

During the 1800s, social mores banned women from attending public art schools  so they found creative pursuits appropriate to their largely homebound circumstances. The works of art on view dating from this period demonstrate the various ways in which women transformed the materials and subjects available to them into works of art. These creative practices historically have been dismissed as minor. But quilting, watercolors, or silhouettes were all important means of artistic expression for women who had no access to the education or materials required for fine art. Leaping ahead in time to the 1970s, feminist artists embraced traditional women’s art, such as china painting or needlecrafts, and celebrated them as worthy counterparts to painting and sculpture.

Since the early 1900s, opportunities for women in the arts have expanded—more women have enrolled in art schools, more women have become instructors in those programs, more women are exhibiting their work, more collectors and museums are acquiring works of art by women. Statistically, even if women remain outpaced by men in exposure and in pay, today there are legions of women designers, illustrators, painters, sculptors, printmakers, and videographers who are innovators in the arts.

Celebrating Suffrage examines how women created their place within the larger art community, adding an important vision that has often been overlooked or undervalued. This historic anniversary presents the opportunity to celebrate the contributions to subject matter, materials, and means of expression that women have made to the visual arts in the United States.

Miranda Hofelt, Curator of 19th-Century American Art
Mary Murray, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art

“Winter Workspace 10 Year Anniversary: Returning to the Source,” Wave Hill, Bronx, NY by Sabrina Gschwandtner

Winter Workspace Artists: Returning to the Source

Wave Hill
4900 Independence Avenue
Bronx, NY 10471-2899 

January 19 - March 29, 2020

Since 2010, 111 artists have had studios at Wave Hill through the Winter Workspace residency program. This time of experimentation and reflection in the garden proved immensely influential to their practices, launching new and expanded directions. The work they created was often exhibited widely, finding new audiences, meanings and contexts. We are celebrating the 10th anniversary through the exhibition Winter Workspace Artists: Returning to the Source, on view in Wave Hill House from January 18 - March 29. This will include works inspired by Wave Hill during the residency or after, a video screening program, and a showcase of public programs that workspace artists have facilitated over the years. 

Ongoing permanent collection exhibition at the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum by Sabrina Gschwandtner

Connections: Contemporary Craft at the Renwick Gallery

Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum
Pennsylvania Avenue at 17th Street NW
Washington, DC 20006

Ongoing

The installation highlights the evolution of the craft field as it transitions into a new phase at the hands of contemporary artists, showcasing the activist values, optimism, and uninhibited approach of today’s young artists, which in some way echoes the communal spirit and ideology of the pioneers of the American Studio Craft Movement in their heyday. The artworks range from the 1930s through today and span numerous media.