20/20 Vision: My Weekend at WARC  by Agatha Schwager and Jeannette Lambert

Nette and I bundled up one chilly Toronto Saturday morning to check out the panel discussions on the ever-knotty questions surrounding Art-making and women. WARC (Women's Art Resource Centre) celebrated their 20th Anniversary in high style at the NFB with a conference followed by a celebration, "20/20 Vision: seeing our way through change".

It was inspirational to listen to the different women who were carefully chosen for the panels. I am not going into all the topics that were touched upon, but like to comment on one of the main issue at the Saturday morning panel.




How many women artists have work in the collections of our national institutions? In 1994, Linda Abrahams, Co-director of WARC, (photo above) reported on the numbers of women exhibited in the National Gallery and other institutions. She tried to review the statistics ten years later. Alas, she had little success in getting the information. She noted with regret that these institutions were not even capable of giving figures on women artists in museums. Was it because there were none, they were too busy to look after this request, or it just did not seem relevant anymore after twenty of feminism?

There was a bit of an uproar amongst panelists questioning the validity of doing this kind of research. We know things are different now: "public" views on art by women has definitely improved. Younger women now know how to market themselves and galleries all over Canada are handling work by male and female alike. But why not collect the numbers too?

As always, the ever-present question of the monetary value of artwork resurfaced. Purchase price is a consideration when a museum acquires a work of art, which in turn affects the future value of the work, creates a vicious circle. It all was a little depressing to hear the old story again. Although it was suggested that things had improved, since more women's works are represented in these institutions; perhaps also a result of more women also working within the institutions. Some had turned away from making art though. It was refreshing to learn that Lisa Steele, whose early video work was so influential twenty five years ago, has found that teaching is a great way to stimulate her creative process.

In general, the afternoon panel was more upbeat. Each panel member was actively involved in different and often self-initiated projects. Leslie Ann Coles is founder and programmer for Female Eye Festival already celebrating its 4th annual festival this spring. Cynthia Lickers-Sage, is now managing the largest Aboriginal film festival with international aboriginal films from all over the world, the festival is running right now, during this weekend. My clever daughter Jeannette bypasses traditional channels of distribution and reaches out via the Internet with her multi-media art and also runs Jazz Grrls, an online community for female jazz performers. Rebecca Baird is an artist whose work is in major institutions and whose work in collaboration with native groups brings together many artists while organizing festivals as well. Fiona Smyth exhibits her work in alternative venues, clubs, on the web and in galleries. Whatever the stats may tell us, this group made it clear that women artists are out there taking care of business, with or without institutional assistance.

The Sunday brunch with the curators shed some light on art distribution. Nina Czegledy is an independent multimedia artist and curator as well as Chair of ISEA (the prestigious International Society of Electronic art). Her dissemination process completely bypasses Toronto, her city of residence. She focuses her energy internationally, where she finds audiences more receptive to her projects. Xandra Eden, curator at the Powerplant moderated the panel. Eden was clearly aware of the issue of women's work being devalued in the larger institutions. Michelle Jacques from the AGO summed it up beautifully. She compared the goals of male art as object-oriented, versus female art as creation or process-oriented. Women tend to care more for that which is around the actual object of art. She related this approach to approaches toward art in non-European cultures, which can more encompassing and also more inclusive in everyday life. African artwork, for example, is not considered to be separate from music, dance and is often celebrated in the streets.

Other important points were brought up by Ellen Anderson, founder of Creative Spirit Center, regarding the availability of access to art in public institutions and her vision of more universal access. Camilla Singh, assistant director and curator at MOCCA, brought up the point that there is a lack of exposure of children to art, music, and early training and participation may encourage larger audiences for museums.

Altogether this conference filled me with hope. There are definitely improvements. When we look at the work women have done, while hidden from view, achievements have been taking shape. So while feminism has perhaps not broken down the institutions that it was focusing on (I'm pretty sure these will eventually self destruct) there is evidence that a silent revolution is taking place. Wonderful projects have sprouted up. Looking at the women presenting their work and involvement at the conference, it is amazing what women have achieved. Bravo WARC for bringing them together. Our struggle has not been in vain.

-Agatha Schwager

---------------------------------------

A couple more thoughts off the top of my head (by Jeannette Lambert):

I consider myself a post-feminist. Not in the sloppy, amnesiac style described by Millie Chen at the first panel, but a proud and clear-thinking post-feminist. I see a post-feminist as someone who was raised believing women are equal (or superior) to men. Who then stomped out into the world to discover all these other people didn't agree and so she got very, very angry. My mother, Agatha, who wrote the article above, was the patient feminist voice in our home and I was the rebel grrl with green hair.

At the WARC conference a lot of us reminisced over the energy that was present twenty years ago. Is it gone now? Where is our fight? Maybe it is because we were younger, Toronto was invaded with punk rock art students. Maybe it has been hard to stick with one idea--that idea of women's art being equally valuable--for years at a time. Surely other issues rush past and interfere. What are women's lives if not everchanging? Are we still chasing male value systems?

When Ayanna Black played a recording of women artists like Joyce Weiland and Vera Frenkel discussing sexism in the art world thirty years ago, it sounded shockingly fresh. And Linda's stats or lack thereof prove that there is much work to be done.

New media was often touted as a solution at the conference, a possible alternative to allow female artists to bypass the institutions. Most of the panelists on Saturday afternoon agreed that networking internationally through cyberspace was a very important aspect of their work. But the curators on Sunday didn't seem to be working with new media (Nina Czeglegy was the notable exception) and the general blankness that greeted the discussions around new media took me by surprise. Perhaps a centre like StudioXX in Montreal really has made more of a difference than I imagined, and Toronto needs a media art centre for women. Let's get the grrls on computers and let's get the kids making art and listening to music! Universal access to daycare and good early childhood education (another reason I am glad to be in Quebec) is important to stimulating more creative voices for the future.

And everyone agreed that there should be more funding for this, that and the other thing, but the arts officers weren't present anyway. Perhaps if government officials began to equate art with tourism (i.e. money making) as they do in many European countries there would be more sympathy for all that creativity we are so concerned about. Because we don't really just want to be big, important, and famous artists like the boys, do we? That's not our goal, is it? To join them? Because we really want rich and happy and fulfilled lives without all kinds of sexist barriers tripping us up along the way. We're like Aretha Franklin - a bit of RESPECT please.

Oh! and Xandra Eden quoted a study that says women participate in greater numbers in all of the arts with the notable exception of jazz ... I knew that, but still, what a drag, eh? We do what we can.

-JL

Leave a comment

name
email (if you want to be notified)
<-- Please retype the word you see here:
Notify me when someone replies to this post?