To draw attention to the needs of women artists -- and they are many! -- the Fund for Women Artists launched the second annual SWAN Day, set for March 28, 2009. SWAN stands for Support Women Artists NOW! and that about says it all. Women in the arts continue to suffer discrimination and under representation. It's true in theater; it's true in film, music, dance, visual arts. Writes the Fund:
Women are creating some of the most exciting and
challenging art in the United States today. And yet, despite great strides in other fields and a few high-visibility success stories, women continue to face enormous employment discrimination in the arts and media.
The Fund for Women Artists is dedicated to helping women overcome barriers .... At the same time, we need to educate the public about the continuing problems of gender bias and pressure institutions to change. Not only do women suffer by being shut out, but the culture as a whole is poorer when it is deprived of the vision and creativity of women artists.
To draw attention to these needs, Martha Richards, founder of the Fund for Women Artists, established SWAN Day and invited artists to use it to draw attention to women's creativity. In response, over 160 events are underway across the country in and around this day.
Events include dance, readings, panels, ceremonies, celebrations (not all are strictly on the day of March 28). In New York alone, a couple dozen events are underway. The Women's Project, a pioneering theater company in New York, held a Carnival at its theater space in New York last week. Melodia Women's Choir, an amazing group of women's voices, sang at the Women's History Celebration of New York City Comptroller Bill Thompson, in preview of its May 16 concert, Visions of Eternity. On March 28, Broadway Theater Women will discuss collaborations at the Lincoln Center Library, following an earlier Collaboration Award Celebration by the New York Coalition of Professional Women in the Arts and Media. Words of Choice itself is joining in SWAN events with a performance on April 23 at the Judson Memorial Church, a benefit for the Planned Parenthood of New York City Activist Council.
The west coast has its share of events, too, such as a Goddess Painting Abstract Workshop in San Rafael on Wednesdays in April, a 'Funk to Feminism' tour in Napa on March 28, and Women Artists on Immigration in Los Angeles, held on March 7. All told, events are in about half the states and 11 countries. The full list is online, and details can be located via a Swan Day map.
SWAN Day is a perfect opportunity for the pro-choice community to reach out to artists in their communities and to show a little love. The excitement of women's art and challenges facing women artists are described on an 8-minute video posted by the Fund for Women Artists. Women artists are using their talents to raise women's visions of equality and freedom; in turn, they deserve support, as well -- on SWAN Day, and all year round.
Posted by Cindy Cooper
Pictured: 2009 Swan Day poster from the Fund for Women Artists
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