Document 71: "Arts and Humanities," in Susanna Downie, Decade of Achievement: 1977-1987: A Report on a Survey Based on the National Plan of Action for Women (Washington, D.C.: National Women's Conference Committee, 1988), pp. 16-17.
Introduction
In Decade of Achievement, the authors analyzed each aspect of the National Plan of Action formulated at the Houston conference noting that while federal action on the plan was limited and the Reagan Administration had a negative impact on women's rights, women activists had made gains in each area of the Plan at the grassroots level. Forced to work locally due to the Federal government's lack of interest, the following 24 documents address how women's groups addressed each of the planks of the National Plan of Action in the decade after the NWC.
p. 16
ARTS AND HUMANITIES
NATIONAL PLAN GOALS
•equal opportunities to upper-level posts in Federally-funded cultural institutions (museums, libraries, universities, public ratio, TV, etc.) •more equitable representation on grant-awarding boards, commissions, and panels. •more equitable representation among grant awardees •use of blind judging, wherever possible.
THE VISUAL ARTS:
The women's movement among women artists has taken many forms, from The Guerrilla Girls, who do zap actions and consciousness-raising, to much more sedate organizations such as The National Museum of Women in the Arts.
Women artists are now 38% of all artists (up from 26% in 1970), but only about 10% of exhibitions are of women artists' work. For prestigious museums the percentage is even lower: for the Whitney, it's 8%, and the Guggenheim, 4% (av., 1981-1986). The figure for Black and Hispanic artists (94% male) is about the same as that for women.
Women artists earn only 42% of male artists' earnings, a much larger wage gap than for women in the general labor force.
THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WOMEN IN THE ARTS
At the level of established culture, the crowning achievement of the past decade was the opening of The National Museum of Women in the Arts, in Washington DC, on April 7, 1987. Work on the project began in 1981, with a few dedicated women. NMWA now has 76,000 members nationwide, with support from State Committees in a growing number of states. The inaugural permanent collection, of over 300 works by women artists, was donated by Wilhelmina Cole Holladay and her husband, art patrons who, in 1964, noticed the dearth of women artists in museum collections and began collecting art by women. There is a book and gift shop (with special rates for members), a newsletter, paid internships, and a docent program. The American Women Artists 1830-1930 exhibit is on tour until mid-88.
NCWAO: In 1977, there were enough local or regional organizations of women artists to form The National Coalition of Women's Art Organizations, which now has a membership of about 100 organizations and works to advocate for women artists. Getting consignment laws on the books has been a major recent battle. An artist can lose a whole batch of work with no recompense, because dealers have no legal responsibility for works taken on consignment. Consignment laws require the dealer to enter into a contract with the artist and to assume trusteeship of works taken on consignment. 25 states now have consignment laws (only 5 states had such laws in 1979).
NCWAO was an outgrowth of the National Women's Caucus for Art, which was formed in 1972 as a committee of the College Art Association, and became independent in 1975. The Caucus has about 3500 individual members and sponsors annual conferences and honor awards for women artists.
MUSIC:
Developments by women in music have followed traditional lines, with mostly separate lines of growth in classical, jazz, popular, and choral music.
The greatest efflorescence has been in women's popular music, with a large (but not well-documented) number of new women songwriters and performers growing by means of, and contributing to, a national array of women's music festivals, women's production companies, women's coffeehouses and other performance spaces, and women's bookstores (which also sell records and tapes). The first of the festivals was the National Women's Music Festival in 1974, in Champaign-Urbana IL, organized by Kristen Lems. This festival has continued every year since, is now held in Bloomington, Indiana, and serves over 2000 women (and men) each year. Workshops on song-writing, and surviving in the music industry, with women in all phases of production, make this event more than just a festival.
"MICHIGAN": The really distinctive events began in 1976, with the first Michigan Women's Music Festival, which was women-only, and was held on 200 acres of western Michigan wilderness. The festival now owns its own land, 600 acres in Hart, MI, and attracts between 8000 and 10,000 women each year. Camping in a safe woman-only space, living in tents, with four nights of music under the stars, and a Day Stage for jamming, plus the magic of a small fleeting tent-city created and regulated entirely by women, has been replicated in four other locations. The West Coast Women's Music and Comedy Festival (1980, annual, averages 3000 to 4000 women), the New England Women's Musical Retreat (1981, annual, averages 1500 women), the Southern Women's Music and Comedy Festival (1984, annual, has grown to about 2000 attendance), and Campfest (1984, in Southeastern PA, with about 800 women, featuring HOT showers) all use the Michigan model, with variations, and all provide the unique experience of a small-scale social order created entirely by women.
Alongside the development of women's music at these festivals, has gone the development of women's crafts: ceramics, jewelry, the needle arts, and of course T-shirts and Buttons. For some craftswomen the festivals provide a large enough market to make a living, since they are scheduled at different times, so that the real "festy-goers" can attend all of them, and so the musicians can perform at all of them.
A large percentage of the musical performances at
p. 17
Since 1984 there has been a Women's Choral Festival held annually in the Midwest. It is organized by The Sistersingers Network, composed of 15 women's choirs, which has an individual membership of about 200, and a mailing list through which music is exchanged. The Network was founded by Calliope, a women's choir in St Louis, in 1984, and festivals have been held in Madison, Minneapolis, and Kansas City. One of the choirs performed at the New England Women's Music Festival in 1987, and one will perform at the Bloomington festival in 1988.
CLASSICAL MUSICIANS:
Women musicians and composers earn about 50% of what men earn, which is only $7000 (av. annual, 1986). Women earned 16% of PhDs in music in 1970. The figure is now 36%, with 51% of Master's Degrees. But the number of women with tenure stream positions in Music Departments nationwide has only increased 1% in ten years (from 21 to 22%). The three leading professional organizations of musicians, including the American Musicological Society, all have women's caucuses and have recently had women as presidents. American Women Composers was founded in 1976, by Tommie Carl. They produce annual concerts of women composers' works, as well as recordings on their own label. The International League of Women Composers was founded in 1975, by Nancy Van de Vate, with about 40 members; it now has about 250. In 1986, they held the 4th International Congress on Women in Music.
There has been slow but definite progress in women becoming conductors. Also, women now make up 29% of performers for major symphonies, and 48% of metropolitan and regional symphonies.
Leonarda Productions, founded by Marnie Hall in 1977, is still the best source for recordings or cassettes of classical music by women, including contemporary performances of forgotten women composers, such as Clara Schumann (1819-1896) and Fanny Mendelssohn (1805-1847) as well as works by prize-winning contemporary women composers such as Amy Beach (d. 1944), Judith Lang Zaimont, Katherine Hoover, and Ellen Zwilich.
FEMINIST BOOKSTORES: The explosion in women's cultural expression has been facilitated by and given rise to its own marketing system - a network of feminist bookstores that started with about 20 bookstores in 1976 and now has over 100 stores nation-wide that carry only books by women. Carol Seejay, founder and editor of the Feminist Bookstore News, says the days of the volunteer bookstore are passing, and most now have some paid staff. Sales for feminist booksellers in 1987 are up 25% over 1986, with no particular advertising effort.
PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR THE ARTS: The trend in the last decade has been toward regionalization of arts support systems. In 1979, New York City was providing 70% of the supports, nationwide, for the arts. In 1986, New York's share is down to 20%, while funding is at an all time high for state arts councils, metropolitan arts centers, and public support for opera, ballet, theatre, film-makers, visual artists and musicians. For example, federal funding for state art agencies was $50.5 million in 1977, but has soared to $216.5 million in 1987.
— with information from organizations listed below plus Betty Friou and Adrian
Black (musicologists), Marnie Hall (Leonarda) and Elizabeth Hayden Pizer (ILWC).
RESOURCES:
•The National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1250 New York Ave. NW, Washington DC 20005-3920. (202) 783-5000.
•National Women's Caucus for Art, Moore College of Art, 20th & the Parkway, Philadelphia PA 19103. (215) 854-0922. Mary Hopkins. Administrator.
•National Coalition of Women's Art Organizations, Dorothy Provis (Pres.), 123 East Beutel Rd., Port Washington, WI 53074. (414) 284-4458.
•Women's Music Archives, 208 Wildflower Lane, Fairfield CN 06430. Lucia Kimber, keeper of the tapes, also has info on the Sistersingers Network, and the Women's Music Festivals.
•Leonarda Productions, P.O. Box 1736, Cathedral Station, New York NY 10025. Send for catalogue.
•American Women Composers, 1690 36th St. NW Ste. 409, Washington DC 20007. (202) 342-8179.
•Feminist Bookstore News, P.O. Box 882554 San Francisco CA 94188. (415) 626-1556.
•Nat'l Assoc. of State Arts Agencies: (202) 347-6352
LADYSLIPPER CATALOGUE: A TREASURY OF THE WOMEN'S MUSIC
MOVEMENT
The major resource for women's music (all genres) is Ladyslipper, Inc., a wholesale and mail-order distributor of records and tapes of women's music which was founded by Laurie Fuchs in 1976 in Durham NC. First it was just Laurie, then a few more women came to help. By 1979, sales were supporting Laurie and one co-worker. Ladyslipper now supports six people. In 1978 they shipped less than 3000 records and tapes; in 1986, they shipped more than 50,000. Ladyslipper's catalogue began as a 6 x 8" 16-pager, with less than 200 entries, only 30 of which were "mostly or entirely women" (including production). The 1988 catalogue runs to 79 8 1/2 x 11" pages, with over 1200 entries, Categories include: Feminist music, New Age and Women's Spirituality, Classical, Reggae, Punk, New Wave, Rock, "Girl Groups", Soul, Blues, Jazz, Gospel, Country, a large International section, Children's, (feminist) Men's, and videos, songbooks, and posters. And in 1987 they acquired a sure sign of success - a toll-free order number. Ladyslipper, Inc., P.O. Box 3130, Durham NC 27705. Orders: (800)634-6044. Office number: (919) 638-1570.
 |
 |
 |
| Previous Document |
Document List |
Next Document |