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In This Issue: • Martha Richards Reflects on Sixty Years of Stubborn Creativity>> |
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Since I will turn 60 on Monday, December 14, I have been been reflecting on the creative impulse that has been central to my life and work for so many years. Like many of you, I do this work because I feel compelled by some inner force. Earlier this year, when I interviewed Isabel Allende for SWAN Day, I asked her how she came to write her first novel, and she said, "I was desperate – there was this stuff that I needed to get out of my soul somehow – to give birth." I have heard similar statements from hundreds of artists over the years, and it’s how I feel about my own work. When I started WomenArts, many well-intentioned people told me it was crazy, and yet, here we are 15 years later. I believe that these stubborn creative instincts are our greatest source of power, especially when we work together. As I think about my next decade, I want to find ways to honor that perseverance in each of us and to build a community where we can cheer each other on. My mother grew up on a farm, and I was actually named after her favorite mule. My mother often told me that I was as stubborn as my namesake, but since she was strong-willed herself, it was always clear that she loved my independent spirit and wanted me to succeed. Perhaps this is why I feel such a deep connection with other obstinate dreamers. I recognize the energy that feels like home. People always told me that as you get older you cherish your friendships more than anything else and I am finding that to be true. I want to thank all of you for being such wonderful colleagues and friends for all these years. Keep the faith – the world needs our passionate voices, and I am rooting for all of us to be heard! Much love, Martha Richards P.S. I have loved getting so many birthday notes, poems, songs, and other samples of your art. Please feel free to keep sending those all year long! |
WomenArts Benefit A rare signed print of Starting price: $5,000. Want To Do Your Own If you are selling things on eBay, it is easy to donate all or part of the sale to WomenArts. We are on eBay’s approved list of non-profits as The Fund for Women Artists. |
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Announcing the WomenArts Calendar We are pleased to announce our new WomenArts Calendar this week. It is designed so that you can post your SWAN Day events or any events featuring women artists all year round. Like all of our website services, the WomenArts Calendar is free. We have worked hard to make it easy for you to enter all the relevant information for a wide range of events – from informal gatherings to multi-day festivals. You are welcome to post both free and paid events. As an audience member, you can search for events by date, location, art form, or type of event. You can also search for free events or paid events. If you are new to our system, you can create an account that will let you post an artist profile on the WomenArts Network, or post events on the WomenArts Calendar. If you already have a username and password on the WomenArts Network, you can use those to log in to post an event on the WomenArts Calendar. (If you can’t remember your username and password, just contact us and we will send them along.) We hope you will enjoy this new free service. If you have any suggestions about ways to improve the calendar or if you experience any difficulties, please contact us>> Check Out the WomenArts News Room! Want a simple way to find arts news from a feminist perspective? Now you can read live feeds of more than 30 women’s arts blogs in the new WomenArts News Room. Please contact Deborah Steinberg, our Director of Artist Services, if you would like to have your blog included. |
WomenArts is deeply grateful to Hemalatha Manickam for her thoughtfulness and dedication in doing the programming for the WomenArts Calendar. Our calendar software is written in PHP and uses a MySQL database. Hema has worked in Fortune 500 companies and has 8 years of experience in analysis, design & development. She is certified as an Oracle DBA and a Java Programmer. She is also skilled at database marketing, project management, and web analytics. |
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Please feel free to reprint any portion of this newsletter, but please give credit to WomenArts. (©WomenArts.org 2009) |
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WomenArts
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