I FEEL LIKE I’M CATCHING YOUNG UP-AND-COMING ARTISTS AT THIS AMAZING PLACE, SO I’M INVESTING IN THAT WAY BUT I’M ALSO Investing In my Own Community.
movement of the ’70s and ’80s imbued a sense of progress. “It took a while for a lot of us to realize things hadn’t changed as much as we thought that they had. It’s why we need organizations like Women & Their Work.”
Statistics tell the tale. Work by female artists makes up only 3 to 5 percent of major permanent collections in the U.S. Of 590 major exhibitions by nearly 70 institutions in the U.S. from 2007 to 2013, only 27 percent were devoted to female artists. Though women earn half of the MFAs granted in the U.S., only 30 percent of artists represented by commercial galleries are women. Women lag behind men in directorships held at museums with budgets over $15 million, holding 30 percent of art museum director positions.
While statistics are certainly a motivating factor, they do not define W&TW’s exhibitions or environment. “It’s not like there’s some feminist juggernaut that’s just driving everything,” says artist Connie Arismendi, who’s wonderfully spirited and candid and served on the W&TW board for nine years. “These artists are unique, they have incredible talent and multiple points of view, and that’s
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what fascinates me and keeps me going back. Is there gender inequality? Yes. Is the work always about gender inequality? No.” The prevailing sense and sensibility at W&TW is that female artists are invaluable because art is invaluable. Cowden is as passionate about current and past exhibitions as she is about helping people experience the joy of looking at art. “One of the things I’ve always tried to do is give art the credibility they give things like football, because no one is born knowing things about football,” she says. It’s an unexpected parallel and, once she expounds a bit, a salient point. There are a lot of people who go to UT football games who don’t know a thing about the sport but nonetheless have fun tailgating or wearing burnt orange in a sea of excitable fans wearing foam fingers. Children’s educational programming at the gallery encourages kids to have fun and call out the things they love and don’t love about a piece of work. Casual viewers are offered exhibition catalogs if they want context and reminded that esoteric doesn’t have to mean inaccessible. Cowden is a paradigm of optimism and enthusiasm, with the wide grin of someone who loves her life’s work. W&TW is responsible for enhancing art collections across the city. “The biggest source of my collection is Red Dot,” says Katelena Cowles, an artist and former W&TW board member. Red Dot Art Spree is the annual fall fundraiser where more than 150 original works by an array of artists are