WomenArts is proud to announce that it has formed a partnership with San Francisco’s Brava for Women in the Arts to support the creation of new works by women artists. WomenArts is co-sponsoring five of Brava’s artist projects during 2024 and plans to support additional projects over the next three years.
With our next presidential election less than two months away, White Snake Projects, an activist opera company in Boston, is offering Mary D. Watkins’ opera about civil rights activist, Fannie Lou Hamer – a powerful reminder of the intense struggle over voting rights in the U.S. sixty years ago.
On March 30, 2024, women artists in Nairobi, Kenya celebrated their 16th annual Support Women Artists Now Day with a festival of music, dance, and spoken word, as well as visual arts and crafts. How have they survived the political and economic upheavals in their country, and what can we learn from them?
In her wide-ranging book, “All About Love: New Visions,” the brilliant feminist scholar, bell hooks, explored the ways that sexism, classism, racism, and capitalism have limited our capacity to love each other. She urged us to use radical love to transform society. Three years after her death, her ideas are gaining traction.
Monumental Women is forming a coalition to re-create Augusta Savage’s “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a 16-foot monument to the musical contributions of African-Americans, that was created for the 1939 World’s Fair in Queens, NY. Savage was the only Black person commissioned to create a piece for the fair.
Golden Thread Productions will celebrate International Women’s Day in San Francisco with “What Do the Women Say? Expressions of Joy,” an evening of theatre, music, and dance featuring Palestinian women artists. There will also be Palestinian food and a display of Palestinian embroidery in the lobby.
The Parent Artist Advocacy League (PAAL) has just launched a multi-year survey about the challenges facing people in the performing arts and media who have children, dependent parents, or other care-giving responsibilities. Since there is not much research on this topic, please take the survey if you can.
In response to the economic devastation of their local arts community during the pandemic, the Svane Family Foundation has commissioned a diverse group of 100 San Francisco Bay Area artists for $10,000 each for a unique arts exhibition/auction. WomenArts thanks them for this bold and welcome investment.
When Cerise Lim Jacobs, Executive Producer of White Snake Projects, read about the murder of George Floyd, she wanted to do more than make a statement of solidarity. She wanted to use the full power of her art to explore systemic racism. One year later, White Snake’s virtual opera about racism and prisons is opening.
Indigenous girls in the innovative Daughters of Tradition program at Milwaukee’s HIR Wellness Institute celebrated their third SWAN Day this year by partnering with visual artist Valaria Tatera, a member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Tatera’s work often explores self- identity and other Indigenous issues.
Today is Support Women Artists Now Day/SWAN Day 2021. In this tumultuous year, WomenArts President Martha Richards reflects on the power of women artists to create positive change. She is hopeful because she believes that women artists have the imagination to help the world recover.
Support Women Artists Now Day/SWAN Day is officially this Saturday, March 27, 2021. Learn about the online celebrations over the weekend from SWAN Day NY, the Ladies Quintessential Quintet, and SWAN Day Kenya, and an in-person event in Joshua Tree, CA – plus SWAN Day CT’s online event next month.
Looking for some feminist fiction for SWAN Day? WomenArts has two recommendations – Sally Bellerose’s “Fishwives” and Judith Arcana’s “Hello, This is Jane.” Bellerose’s book is about feisty older lesbians. Arcana’s stories show what life was like for women before the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade.
Recent research has shown that only five of New York City’s 150 statues of historic figures depict women, and many other cities are just as bad. WomenArts reports on three arts initiatives that address these sad statistics – She Built NYC, New Shokan Kitchen Island, and Boston Women’s History Heritage Trail.
Look What SHE Did! seeks to inspire women and girls by creating short films about remarkable women who have changed the world. In honor of Women’s History Month, they will be featuring stories of female resilience starting with a new film about labor leader Dolores Huerta,