What is the percentage of women artist displayed in galleries and museums? Is a question that has been done to death, why? Well it's STILL a huge problem in galleries and museums around the world that women are underrepresented.
In this country alone, Saatchi Gallery decided just this year to hold its first all female show, (no theme, no connection just the fact that they have a vagina, think a little harder Saatchi!!) Tate Modern's new director Frances Morris has also promised more exhibitions from women. Why haven't they been doing this years before?
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| Champagne Life exhibited this year at the Saatchi Gallery. |
The Guerrilla Girls have been campaigning for women in the arts for years, this is what inspires me. When I leave my room in the morning the last image I see is one of their posters saying, THE ADVANTAGE OF BEING A WOMAN ARTIST. This is just one little thing that has made me want to focus my career on women artists and feminism.
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| My political door. |
Galleries in the North East are quite balanced, not saying they are perfect. But there has been some great women artists displayed in big Institutes like Baltic in Gateshead and MIMA in Middlesbrough and far more in little independent galleries. This does not happen all the time though and things still need to change.
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| Margaret Harrison:Accumulations (2015) |
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| Yoko Ono, Between the Sky and my Head (2008) |
On my social media I have been posting pictures of women artists, old and new. Using the hashtag, Where are the Women I go around north east galleries and research museums collections online to find what women are exhibiting around the region. Some galleries I am pleasantly surprised at the amount of women artist they are displaying, others not so much.
Why I am doing this?
I want to highlight the good work that galleries do for more diversity and the ones that do not. Of course woman are just one group, where are all the people of colour, gays, trans. I am only one woman, one group at a time!
PRAISE - Laing Art Gallery
It never used to be like this, it used to be very “old fashion” exhibitions and the permanent collection which is full (and still is) of men. However they have expanded their exhibition spaces and are using more of their collection in different exhibitions. This includes using the women artists in the collection. Back in March, I went to visit Laing and saw the, Drawing from the collection exhibition and was pleasantly surprised that they had more than one women showing, (0nly three, but I have seen worse). I even expressed my surprise to one of the employees (he didn't care) I also mentioned in a post the abstract exhibition and they had some incredible women artists in there too.
Fail - The Winter Gardens
Now, I have a big problem with this one and it actually break my little feminist heart. The Winter Garden Museum in Sunderland, are very supportive of local art groups and artist and have had women displayed in the other rotating gallery space. In their permanent collection they have NO WOMEN ARTIST! WHY? They have plenty talented women in their collection so why isn't there a women in the gallery. I emailed the keeper of the arts (who is a woman)and she just bypassed the question saying there are other exhibition with women in them. But what about the collection that has been there for years the one I went to see as a child and saw no one like me. There is more unknown artist in there than known, so hopefully one of those unknown maybe a woman artist, (I doubt it). We the public are sick of Lowry, he isn't even our artist he belongs to Salford. By some way I want to show these women artist in Sunderland somewhere!
Most people I know in the arts are women, with amazing talent who do not get the time of day. Let's change this by educating the younger on women's rights, women of the past and women of the future. Using social media I can show the world what the north east has to offer even though it might not be on display. I am very proud of coming from the north east and want to show anyone who's interested in what we have to offer.
If any artist wants to promote themselves or have an exhibition they want to promote please contact me here -
michaela.wetherell@hotmail.co.uk Many Thanks,
MAW
