This newsletter is divided into the following articles. To read any one of these articles, please click on the text of the article title.

Letter from the Directors:

Welcome to all our friends and supporters as we enter our first summer on Prairie Avenue. We have wonderful events planned and (if the weather permits) plan to incorporate the use of our front lawn as well as the Hillary Rodham Clinton Women’s Park adjacent to the gallery. One such event will be the neighborhood celebration of Women in Blues on August 20th featuring vocalist Hinda Hoffman. This event is sponsored by the City of Chicago’s Downtown Thursday Night program. Trolleys will be available from the Loop area (downtown Chicago) to the Prairie Avenue district and all the neighboring cultural organizations will participate with plenty of music, food and art.

In July, the gallery will be filled with images and shapes of the house for -you guessed it- The House Show, and Animal Stories will be featured in September. We encourage you to arrange a private wine and cheese reception for your office, class, community or professional group to view the art on display this summer. Not only can your group appreciate the artwork, but they will also delight in the historic architectural elements of the landmark mansion in which we are located. Woman Made is now are also offering daytime tours of the gallery which include a box lunch. Please inquire for further information on these group visits.

So far, 1998 has proved to be a time of positive "firsts" for Woman Made. As our fiscal year drew to a close on June 30, we want to share with you our financial results and forecast for next year. For the first time, we received grants from both the Sara Lee and Puffin Foundations totaling $3500. Our board members planned Woman Made’s first Walkathon raising $6000, surpassing our original goal of $5000. In addition, Woman Made received an anonymous donation of stocks worth $10,000. This gracious gift, along with the other funds raised will allow us to meet many of our goals for the next fiscal year, including the initiation of a permanent collection.

In closing, we would like to extend an invitation to all our members to attend an open board meeting on Saturday, August 15th at 9:30 AM. This will be a forum for you to bring suggestions, steer decisions, ask questions and meet the gallery’s governing body. We hope to see you there.

Beate Minkovski, Executive Director & Janet Bloch, Gallery Director

Anonymous Angel

In May, Woman Made received an anonymous donation of $10,000. We cannot express the immense gratitude we feel to our patron. Her generosity refreshed our motivation to forge ahead with our work in support of women artists. We would like to share the inspirational letter from our donor that accompanied her gift.

Folk Fair Fest

In September Woman Made Gallery will participate in the Outsiders Inside Art Festival at 847 West Jackson. This is our first year participating and we hope you will visit our unique booth featuring artists from California, Florida, Illinois, Maine, New York, Pennsylvania and Utah. We hand-picked these artists whose selected mediums vary from embroidery and bead work to paper machier and crocheted sculpture. The exhibit will run for three days from the Friday, September 18 opening night party through Sunday. There is an admission fee to visit the festival, but we promise not to disappoint you!

'Walk This Way' Update

On Saturday, May 16, 1998 members, friends and supporters of Woman Made Gallery walked for women’s equal opportunities in the arts. With their enthusiastic support and stamina and with the talents of the Woman Made Board we succeeded in raising $6000. Prize winners included Sandra Lambutos for soliciting the most sponsors, Amy Landecker for raising the most money and Solvei Sullivan, who crossed the Finish Line first.

Exhibit at the Capitol

Please join us for the SILENT VICTIMS exhibition addressing domestic violence at the State Capitol in Springfield in October. The exhibit, curated by Woman Made directors, honors the 20th anniversary of the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence and will be on display from October 1 - 31, 1998. There will be a reception for the exhibition on October 14th at the State Library from 5:30 to 8 PM. The Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence is a statewide network of community-based programs providing services to victims of domestic violence, and working to prevent abuse through public education and public advocacy. You may write or call for more information or for tickets to the reception at ICADV, 730 East Vine, Room 109, Springfield, IL 62703, 217-789-2830.

We hope you will all join us for this important exhibition in support of a much needed organization.

WMG Webpage

We are happy to report that our webpage is ready with only a few sites still under construction. Now you can access information about upcoming shows, events, gallery happenings, membership and much more. We are extremely happy and thankful to Yvonne and Mason Galganov from Cambridge, Ontario who designed the webpage and agreed to maintain it.

Galganov & Associates is a successful webpage design company. You can admire their own webpage and many others by visiting their site at http://www.galganov.on.ca Our webpage address is http://www.womanmade.org and you can e-mail us your questions, suggestions or comments at gallery@womanmade.org We will try to answer all mail as soon as we can.

Worthy Organizations

The National Vietnam Veterans’ Art Museum is situated right around the corner from Woman Made at 1801 S. Indiana. With over 500 pieces of art by more than 95 artists, all of whom served in Vietnam, this museum provides a powerful museum experience. Call 312-326-0270 to find out about this unique cultural organization’s membership and exhibition programs or visit them when you’re planning a trip to Woman Made.

Rape Victims’ Advocates (RVA)addresses sexual assault on an individual and institutional level. RVA responds to the problems of sexual violence via four main programs:

1. Crisis Intervention Counseling and Medical / Legal Advocacy
2. Short-Term Counseling
3. Institutional Advocacy
4. Public Education and Professional Training

Still Looking for a Few Good Women

Woman Made is expanding its board of directors. We are looking for women who are committed feminists with time and skills they can contribute to our organization. Especially needed are a lawyer, an accountant and a printer. Please read our mission statement carefully and if you feel our purpose is worthy and you have skills to contribute, please send a cover letter and a resume to Margo Jeanchild, Board President, Woman Made Gallery, 1900 South Prairie Avenue, Chicago, IL 60616.

Wish List

1. wine and soft drinks for openings
2. cassette and/or CD player
3. office supplies
4. photo copier
5. 35mm slide projector
6. exhibit sponsors
7. memberships from every person on our mailing list so we can continue our services to women in the arts and buy all the things on our wish list.

These are the things we wish we had. We would be very thankful if you can help us get any of them. Please keep in mind that your donations are tax deductible.

Please and Thank You

We would like to thank all those who have become members since the last newsletter publication, and those who have donated money and/or their resources and time to help us:

Mary Ashley, Ruth Aizuss Migdal-Brown, Martha Alexakos, Miri Amihai, H. Marie Aragon, Laura Arbrador, Carol Augustine, Mary Badger, Marcy Baim, Tracy Baim, Robin Barcus, Kim & Carlo Basile, Janet Beals, Ina Greenfield Beierle, Patricia Biesen, Yvonne Blackwell, Elizabeth Bowles, Lucile Bram, Maureen Burdock, Carol Ann Burin, Julie Burleigh, Danielle Byrne, Andy Callahan, Patsy Callahan, Ryan Callahan, Ophelia Chambliss, Jan Brown Checco, Laura Chenault, Janina Ciezadlo, Lynn Mayo Collins, Laura Coyle, Julia Cuba, Diana Cutrone, John Cutrone, Tom Doody, Audrey Dulmes, Terry Elliot, Staci Page Fischer, Sylvette Fraser, Barbara Gaines, Yvonne Gajewski, Sherry Gates, Sean Gaughan, Antje Gehrken, George Gehrken, Patricia Gilleran, Andrea Ginsberg, Karla Ginzinger, Bruce Goldberg, Mr. & Mrs. Goldsmith, Kathleen Greenholdt, Deborah Halpern, Jim Hansen, Nancy Elaine Harvey, Juarez Hawkins, Nancy Hild, Teresa Hofheimer, Martha Hollingsworth, Rosmin & Bernhard v. Huene, Annalee Hultgren, Jan Foust Hurt, Daniel Jacobson, Leigh Janes, Melanie Jansen, Margo Jeanchild, Anita Jenke, Joan Painter Jones, Debra Joseph, Priya Kambli, Ursula Kammer-Fox, Susan Kavicky, Mary King, Maureen Kobza, Patricia Lally, Diane Lancia, Amy & John Landecker, Shawn C. Lawrence, Constance Leininger, Gina Litherland, Bernell Loeb, Janet Long, Marilyn Maas, Thaddeus Mackrell, Peggy Marino, Cindy Mathys, Donna McHale, Erik Medina, Kendra Miller, Nancy Miller, Scarlett Ministero-Decker, Monaco/Viola, James Morgan, Rosemary Mulryan, National Vietnam Veteran’s Art Museum, Rene Norman, Leah Oates, Tara O’Brien, Robbin O’Harrow, Lindsay Olson, Patricia Otto, Andy Pappas, Seri Parker, Suzanne M. Parrot, Sheldon Patinkin, Carmen Perez, Longina Perino, Gisele Perreault, Stephanie S. Petrusic, Day Piercy, Nicole Pitman, Charlie Poppell, Rosanne Poppell, Carole Quam, I. Carmen Quintana, Linda Read, Roberta Reb Allen, Susan Riley, Alyce Ritti, Sallie Gilmore Roniss, Lisa Ross-Miller, Judith Roth, Fern Samuels, Nell Himmelfarb Schneider, Davida Schulman, Gretchen Seifert-Gram, Suzanne Setterstrom, Prem Sharma, Cassandra Smith, Liza Staller, Maureen Stanley, Ann Starr, Aubrey Sternal, Diane Stoneman, Mary Stoppert, Solveig & Kevin Sullivan, Kelly O’Mahoney Swieca, Bobby Talamine, Elaine Tearney, Elizabeth Turek, Annette Turow, Anne Vanker, Mary Vihon, Rose Virgo, Elli M. Vitkus, Roger Voegele, Christy VonKaenel, John Jeff Walte, Arlene C. Wanetick, Kathleen Waterloo, Deborah Weber, Mark Weissman, Sylvia Westbrook, Monet Whitaker, Susan White, Laurel Winters, Eileen Wiviott, Sigrid Wonsil, Frankie Woolf.

A heartfelt Thank You to all women and men who helped to make our Walk-a-Thon a great success and a wonderful experience.

A Special Thanks to

Whole Foods, The Bagel Restaurant, Cielo Restaurant at the Omni Hotel, Great Harvest Bread Company, Kim and Carlo’s Chicago Style Hotdogs, Pamela Callahan, Amy & Sandra and all those who donated from the Forensic Science Center in Chicago, Cathleen Nagel, Jeanne Tabachnick and Christine Simokaitis for donating items for our Walkathon.
Lori Pastuszak and Tiffany York of Signs Now at 898 East Roosevelt, Lombard, IL 60148 (630-916-7776) for donating our finish line and banner.
ALSO, THANK YOU TO:
Shereen Boury for designing our newsletter.
Dan Fensin of Blackman Kallick Bartelstein, 300 South Riverside Plaza, Chicago 60606 for donating audit and tax services to us.
Shirley Guay & Rosalie Koldan for donation of a slide screen.
George Gehrken of Digital Network Development for computer maintenance.
Jim Maurer of Sir Speedy at 226 East Ontario, Chicago, IL 60611 (312-280-4781) for donating part of the printing costs of this newsletter.
William Rabe for designing our exhibition invitations and signage.

Note

If you have a disability and need any accommodation in order to be part of any of our events, please call 312-328-0038 one week prior to selected program.

Please note that Woman Made is closed on July 4th and 5th for Independence Day and Sept. 5th and 6th for Labor Day Weekend.

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