The Women’s Caucus for Art , founded in 1972, is a national organization unique in its multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural membership of artists, art historians, students and educators, gallery and museum professionals and others involved in the visual arts, for Art. We have focused attention on the enormous contributions of women and people of color throughout the history of art. Our emphasis is on women working in the visual arts professions today. We have established a national network through research, exhibitions, conferences, and honor awards for achievement
These yearly Honor Awards began in 1979 with their presentation in the White House by President Jimmy Carter to Isabel Bishop, Selma Burke, Alice Neel, Louise Nevelson and Georgia O'Keeffe.
The women being honored in 2002 are:
Sculptor Camille Billops, teacher at Rutgers University, founded, in the early 1970's, with her husband James Hatch, the Hatch-Billops Collection. Located in New York City, it is a major archive on African-American visual artists, poets, dancers and playwrights.
Judith Brodsky served as president of both the WCA (1976-1978) and the College Art Association (19---19--), and did much to expand the participation of women on the CAA board. A prize-winning printmaker, she developed an important workshop, the Princeton Graphic Workshop, Inc., at Rutgers University where she has been Professor of Printmaking, Chair of the Art Dept., and Provost. Professor of Inter-media art at Arizona State University.
Muriel Magenta was president of the Women's Caucus for Art (1982-1984) where she developed its newsletter, Huepoints. She has had a major role in promoting world conferences of women artists (especially through the United Nations) from Beijing, China, to Nairobi, Kenya.
Linda Nochlin, Distinguished Professor of Modern Art at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University and the "mother" of feminist art historians, published her now-famous essay "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" in 1971. Along the way she co- curated with Ann Sutherland Harris, "Women Artists: 1550-1950" (1976), and has published countless texts on women, art, and Realism.
Marilyn Stokstad, University Distinguished Professor at the University of Kansas, was president of the CAA (19---19--.) Her survey text, Art History, soon to be issued in its third edition by Abrams/Prentice Hall, in its showcasing of women artists is a direct challenge to the publishers' previous major survey by H. W. Janson (which included no women in 3000 artists.)
The
Philadelphia WCA is holding a small exhibition entitled "Members
Only" at Cherry Street Tavern, 129 N. 21st St. (Cherry and 22nd Streets).
Come see this eclectic show while in Philly. Open every day from 12noon-2am.