SWAN Day/Support Women Artists Now Day is an international initiative designed to showcase the power and diversity of women’s creativity. Every year since 2008 people around the world have created events that celebrate women artists during the months of March and April.
The official SWAN Day is usually on the last Saturday of March, but if that date conflicts with a religious holiday for you, please feel free to celebrate on other days. The program has five goals:
- To shine a spotlight on women artists – especially artists who are often marginalized by mainstream arts and media organizations because of their race, class, sexual preference, gender identity, disability or other issues.
- To give women artists opportunities to practice and improve their skills at marketing, budgeting, fundraising, and other skills that they need as producers of arts events.
- To help women artists build support networks for themselves by working with other artists in their communities to produce events featuring women artists.
- To encourage women audience members to support women artists by using their power as feminist arts consumers.
- To have fun!
Support Women Artists Now Day was co-founded in 2007 by Martha Richards, the Executive Director of WomenArts, and Jan Lisa Huttner, the Editor-in-Chief of FF2Media.com and founder of WITASWAN (Women in the Audience Supporting Women Artists Now). Please visit our history of SWAN Day page for more information about the origins of this event.
The official date for SWAN Day is always the last Saturday of March, but you are welcome to celebrate SWAN Day any time during March or April, since the spirit of SWAN Day is far more important than the exact date. The first SWAN Day was held in March 2008, and there were over 2,000 SWAN events in 37 countries as of April 2021. WomenArts has run the program every year from 2008 through June 2021, except for SWAN Day 2019 and 2020. StateraArts collaborated with WomenArts on the management of SWAN Day 2018, and StateraArts led the program (with support from WomenArts) during 2019 and 2020. You can view lists of all the SWAN events for each year from 2009 through 2018, and you can read about many of the events by searching the WomenArts Blog for “SWAN.”
Many SWAN events had to be cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic, and most venues were still closed in 2021. StateraArts was not able to continue running SWAN Day under those circumstances.
Although WomenArts is no longer hosting a SWAN Day Calendar, we encourage people to celebrate women artists whenever you can, and especially during Women’s History Month. You can create events featuring women artists or simply send gifts or letters of appreciation to your favorite women artists. Many women artists feel isolated or invisible. Sometimes a little encouragement can make a big difference.
WomenArts would like to thank all of the people who have organized and participated in SWAN Day events over the years. It has been a joy to work with all of you. Together we will build a future where women in all art forms get the visibility and opportunities that they deserve.