Staff Members

Woman Made Gallery was co-founded in 1992 by Beate C. Minkovski and Kelly Hensen, two returning art students at Northeastern Illinois University. Renting a storefront on Chicago's north side Kelly and Beate exhibited their Senior Show, "Man-Made Women". Kelly is responsible for giving the Gallery its great name and for the original WMG logo taken from her woodcut, depicting two hands forming a triangle.

What started as a personal studio space for these two friends, evolved into a not-for-profit gallery serving women artists since 1992. Beate C. Minkovski has continued to guide WMG as its Executive Director since 1993. She oversees all gallery activities, including gallery programming, communication with artists, jurors and curators, webpage updates, on-line artist registry and public relations. She is active with neighboring arts organizations, Intuit and ARC and has served on the Community Arts Assistance Program (CAAP) Panel for the Chicago Cultural Center from 2005 to 2008. She is part of the Special Service Area (SSA) #29 Commission jury panel for public art in Chicago’s Westtown.

Beate Minkovski - Executive Director

Mary Ann Anthony - Administrative Coordinator



Amy Galpin - Gallery Coordinator

Marty Bash - Membership Coordinator

Mary Stoppert - Artisan Gallery Committee

Carmen M. Perez - Artisan Gallery Committee

Janet Bloch - Senior Advisor

Pamela Callahan - Gallery Associate

Many other devoted and able women have helped to shape and develop WMG into the strong organization it has become. One of the gallery's major contributors is Janet Bloch who after refining the WMG logo, dedicated her services as Gallery Director from 1993 to January 2000. She provides ongoing support to artists with her successful Career Day workshops. Janet continues to play a significant role as the organization's Senior Advisor. Another very important and guiding influence is Pamela Callahan, who started as a volunteer in 1994. Pamela served as Gallery Director from 1998 to Fall 2000 and then, as Associate Director, focused on marketing and publicity for the gallery, in addition to coordinating poetry readings through 2002. She initiated the Her Mark Calendar project, an annual datebook with art and poetry by 40 women and continues to help with editing. Pamela Callahan is the organizations generous and inspirational Gallery Associate.

Mary Ann Anthony, is Woman Made’s Administrative Assistant since 2001. Besides administrative duties, Mary Ann Anthony works in all areas of gallery activities, including installation of exhibitions. She has garnered “hands on” experience in art instruction and production. For six years, she has assisted artists with all WMG’s outreach programs at elementary schools and at The Women’s Treatment Center in Chicago. Mary Ann worked as a caseworker for the Illinois Department of Public Aid and for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. She also served as clerk in the General Counsel’s Office of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and was clerk in the Evaluation and Placement Unit of the Peace Corps Midwest Region.

Amy Galpin is Gallery Coordinator, performing administrative and programming duties for Woman Made. She does press releases, communicates with artists, helps with publicity activities and does Gallery related research projects. Amy Galpin is a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Illinois-Chicago. She received an M.A. in Latin American Studies in 2001. Her thesis addressed foreign women artists inspired by Mexican geography and culture. She is guest curator for the 2009 exhibition, Translating Revolution: U.S. Artists Interpret Mexican Muralism at the National Museum of Mexican Art. She has presented at scholarly conferences in the United States, England, and Mexico. She is a member of the American Culture Association and the College Art Association and serves as the Illinois Regional Coordinator for the Feminist Art Project. She is a former Terra Fellow and a recipient of a Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship.

Marty Bash, WMG's Queen of Volunteers is our current Membership Coordinator. She began helping out once a week in September of 2004 and through 2007 she was in charge of WMG volunteers. Marty owned a typesetting business, MKS Composing, for 30 years, and took her shingle down in April of 2004. Growing bored with retirement after a few months, she now does volunteer work at the Shedd Aquarium, as well as at WMG, and further helps the gallery by doing whatever is possible from her home computer. In between, she and her husband hope to travel the country in their RV, "Arvilla."

Mary Stoppert, serves WMG as an Advisory Board member and is co-Director of the WMG Artisan Gallery. Mary Stoppert is a founding member of Artemisia Gallery and the Chicago Women's Caucus for Art. She is a former Professor of Art at Northeastern Illinois University where she taught sculpture and directed the art gallery. She is currently President of Stoppert Perez Ltd, an arts and antiques business.

Carmen M. Perez, is a WMG Board member and co-directs the Artisan Gallery together with Mary Stoppert. Carmen is an artist, an Adult Educator for Chicago City Colleges, and Vice-President of Stoppert Perez Ltd, an arts and antiques business. Carmen received her B.A in art from Northeastern Illinois University. Her work can be viewed at: www.linealatinaarte.com. Carmen has also recently taught art classes as part of WMG's Outreach Program.

Past employees include Gallery Assistant, Morgan Mills who was liked by all and who did all with great style. Morgan relocated to California and we are jealous of her next employer. Sonja Kruitwagen was Gallery Director from 2002 to 2004 and her innovative ideas in marketing helped WMG to reach many more artists which resulted in more entries for and interest in WMG's juried group shows. Sheila Farley who served as Gallery Director from 1999-2001 helped to create an accounting system in Excel that improved our daily accounting procedures. Jori Lewis was Gallery Assistant for the better part of 2002 until she left to pursue further studies at Berkeley. Other Gallery Assistants include Meg Coleman, Elizabeth Bowles and Elizabeth Harms. They all began their relationship with this organization as interns from the School of the Art Institute and continued to work for a number of years at WMG.

Olga Stefan has served as WMG's grantwriter and fundraising consultant from May 2004 to August 2005, when she started her position as CAC's Executive Director. Olga's previous experience include her work as Executive Director of the Around The Coyote Arts Organization from 1999-2003.

Nancy Nield Buchwald, a PhD Candidate at the University of Chicago whose research interests include Abstract Expressionism and contemporary feminist art, used her skills for WMG by editing and writing press releases for exhibitions and researching for artists which we included on our website and in past newsletters. Click Here to read articles written by Nancy Nield Buchwald about artists Barbara Aubin, Mary Ellen Croteau and Geraldine McCullough.

Interns

Woman Made Gallery provides opportunities for interns from Chicago area institutions such as Columbia College, the Urban Life Center, DePaul University, Roosevelt University, Northwestern University, the School of the Art Institute, and the University of Chicago. Students work a set amount of hours per week in exchange for course credit and sometimes a small salary. Interns become involved in many gallery activities including: research, working with artists, hanging shows, and local and national publicity efforts. Interns at Woman Made Gallery learn valuable lessons about the activities of a busy not-for-profit organization. Recently Woman Made Gallery benefited immensely from interns Anne Kelly (Columbia College) and Kathryn Gores (DePaul University). Our current interns are Jadine Collingwood (University of Chicago), Liz Egan (DePaul University), and Kelsey Byers (Columbia College). For more information about internship opportunities at Woman Made Gallery please contact exhibits@womanmade.org

Previous interns include Tess Ireland Hallinan and Sasha Luse who have made their connection to WMG through the Urban Life Center located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood: www.urbanlifecenter.org, Margo Lafontaine, an art history and communication studies student and Claire Arctander, both from Northwestern University, Josephine Ferorelli, a visual arts major and a painter at the University of Chicago and Diana Buckley, a student from the School of the Art Institute, who worked at WMG during the the fall 2002 and winter 2003 semesters. Diana continued her involvement with WMG as a volunteer. Interns Kristine McDermott, Alexis Elton and Jennifer Justin all learned valuable lessons about the activities of a busy not-for-profit gallery.

Volunteers

Gallery Coordinator Amy Galpin is is currently in charge of our volunteers. Several regular volunteers help out from once a month to once weekly, especially Karen Rechtschaffen, Deb Flagel, and Mary King who gives her talents freely to lay out most group exhibitions. Volunteers who helped with an outreach program at the Women's Treatment Center and Goethe Elementary School in fall 2006 include Karen Rechtschaffen and Dorothy, Sadie Gerbic, Marlene Skolnik and Marilyn Mack. Other helpful gallery volunteers include Laura Callier, Diane Chin, Shannon Cleary, Sandy Wong Darroch, Laurel Delaney, Julie Foreman, Sally Sepsey Grimes, Mary Jo O'Hearn, Joan Pantsios, Louise Pappageorge, Michelle Perkins, Barbara Puechler, Caren Helene Rudman, Ellen Rodman, Lora Sherman, Cynthia Staples, Cynthia Strohschein, Jennifer Towslee, Tamasha Williams, Beth Van Riper, Jere Van Syoc and Gail Willert. They assist us with all the work from changing shows to welcoming guests at opening receptions.

Past volunteers that we miss very much are Elizabeth Neubauer, Ed Misley, Fiona McLaren, Beth Shank, Alexandra Zonis, Melissa Neiss and Marta Wojcek. And there are those volunteers who have helped repeatedly at special events or with special tasks. Karen Abbott, Tiffany Amirante, Eleanna Anagnos, Carol Augustine, Gina Bader, Janet Beals, Monica Brown, Kathryn Ferrell, Andrea Ginsburg, Barbara Grzybowski, Laura Hermann, Allison Hill, Alison Hilsabeck, Sandra Holubow, Deborah Hughes, Patty Johnston, Angela Just, Catherine Lundgren, Judith Nolan, Roxana Pereira, Jennifer Riehm, Lisa Rivas, Zareen Sirajullah, Laurel Smith, Amy Seidenbecker, Helen Gagel Squires, Eileen Wasserman and Alexandra Zonis are part of that group. There are many, many other great volunteers who have contributed their time and energy throughout the years. Sometimes their contributions were a one-time commitment and other times they got 'stuck' and more intensely involved. Laura Stempel faithfully coordinates and leads the Women's Group each 4th Sunday of the month. Artist and writer Andrea Harris volunteered her skills to write periodic articles for the WMG newsletter. That job is currently done by Ellen Wade Beals. There are over 100 volunteers who have helped at WMG just over the past year (2005-2006)and we are very grateful and truly fortunate to know all of them. At WMG many cooks don't spoil the food, but make the organization stronger, more diverse and more exciting.

Volunteers play a major role in the smooth operations of WMG. Help is always needed when installing or taking down an exhibition, at opening receptions, special events, in fundraising efforts and for a variety of other tasks, like marketing and grant writing. Through volunteering local artists will accomplish two things: give to a good cause and learn professionalism when dealing with galleries in general. If you are interested in being a volunteer at Woman Made Gallery, please email us at gallery@womanmade.org or call us at 312-738-0400.

Images on the left side from top to bottom depict Beate Minkovski, Mary Ann Anthony, Marty Bash, Mary Stoppert and Sasha Luse and Tess Hallinan. Images on the right side from top to bottom include Kelly Hensen, Janet Bloch, Pamela Callahan, Carmen M. Perez and Karen Rechtschaffen surrounded by her fabulous artwork.