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:

As we welcome the New Year with open arms and great expectations, we’d like to reflect with gratitude on those who have helped develop the positive growth of the gallery. With the expertise of our jurors we mounted ten successful shows providing over 300 artists with the opportunity to exhibit their work. With the assistance of other organizations we hosted tours and neighborhood walks. Through informative workshops we were able to help many women develop their careers as serious artists. By sharing their talents, actors, musicians and writers offered pleasure to our delighted audiences with various performances.

We were able to program all these rewarding events with the support of all you who have become members, renewed your membership and/or donated money to WMG in 1998. We thank you for your trust and hope that you will continue to support Woman Made and its programming that empowers women.

We are grateful for grants received from Sara Lee, the Puffin Foundation and the City of Chicago Dept. of Cultural Affairs. We thank Tenneco and High Point Services for generous corporate funding, and we were able to do more than we realistically had hoped thanks to an anonymous donation of $10,000 from a devoted woman artist. In addition we were blessed by all of you who generously gave your time, talent and things we needed to make operations run more smoothly and efficiently. We thank all of our board members for their continued input and hard work. We thank our Executive Advisor, Judy Chicago, for her valuable insights, experience and advice. We thank our staff and interns for their hard work and input to lighten the workload and last but not least we thank our family members for their help and support. All of you play an important part in the steady and continued growth of this organization, and we are very grateful to you. Thank you.

Beate Minkovski, Executive Director, Janet Bloch, Gallery Director
& Pamela Callahan, Assistant Director

Board News

Anita and David Flores and Ann Vanker and Thad MacKrell were married this fall. We extend our best wishes to both couples for a wonderful future together. Congratulations also to Associate Director Antje Gehrken and Andy Pappas on their marriage. We welcome to our board Marianne Biagi, Liz Cochran, Carol Hirsch and Cathleen Nagle. Our upcoming board meetings are Thursdays, January 21st, February 18th and March 18th, 1999 from 6:30 to 8:30pm at Woman Made.

Permanent Collection

Woman Made Gallery has expanded its Permanent Collection. Thanks to artist Pat Bovo we now own her ‘Docent’ sculpture depicting two life-size deer, male and female, made of wire constructions covered with camouflage material and feminine hygiene napkins. Thank you, Anne Elizabeth, for your ingenious garterbelt and two pair of high-heeled pumps, all covered with feathers and nails. Ursula Kammer-Fox enriched our collection with her mixed media work ‘Intimacy’ for which we are very grateful. In addition WMG purchased Geri Connely’s granite grave stone, in welcome-mat format, entitled ‘Til’ Death Do Us Part’. All artwork accepted for the Permanent Collection is decided and voted on by a special committee.

The Blue of Her Past

The Perfect Shade of Blue, a mixed media installation and performance by Chicago artist Barbara Bansley took place in July, 1998. This project was supported by a Community Arts Assistance Special Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Illinois Arts Council Access Program.

Spring Soul-stice Tour to Enliven Spirit

Mark your calendar to celebrate the spring solstice with Woman Made’s First Annual Art Gallery Tour on Saturday, March 20th from 10am to 4pm. You’re invited to a soul-enriching day filled with great art, delicious food, lively conversations and spirit warming rituals, including a sage burning ceremony and drum dance.

The day’s activities will begin with a continental breakfast buffet at Woman Made Gallery followed by a private tour of the gallery and one-on-one time with many of the artists. From there, participants will board the motor coach for a tour of Chicago’s premiere women-owned art galleries. Throughout the day, enjoy refreshments aboard the bus as well as a gourmet box lunch provided by Café V.

Cost for the event is $60.00 and includes bus tour, lunch and snacks. Call Woman Made to make your reservation todaay as space is limited. Don’t miss the chance to be a part of this first annual event.

Café V

Serving breakfast and lunch café cuisine with a trendy edge plus monthly cooking classes, gallery openings and programs. Located in the National Vietnam Veterans’ Art Museum 1801 S. Indiana, Chicago, IL 60616. 312-326-9901

Complimentary coffee and 10% off entire order to WMG members

In Loving Memory

It is with great sadness that we report the untimely deaths of two women artists and friends who were connected to us and to Woman Made Gallery from the beginning.

René A. Townsend who died October 10th, 1998 was a prolific artist and educator. She participated at Woman Made Gallery as both an exhibitor and juror. She was the first black woman to graduate from the Rinehart School of Sculpture and was a Ford Foundation Fellow. René was a member of Sapphire and Chrystals and taught at the School of the Art Institute.

Sara Marie Risk, died November 6th, 1998. She moved from Chicago to New Britain, Connecticut with her husband Sean Gallagher, where she taught and created her moving portraits inspired by Italian Renaissance art. Both she and her husband were members of Woman Made Gallery and have exhibited here.

We express our heartfelt condolences to the families of Sara Marie Risk and René A. Townsend. They will be deeply missed.

Must See

Cobalt Ensemble Theatre will perform their production of Heather McDonald’s DREAM OF A COMMON LANGUAGE at Chicago Dramatists on January 9th through February 14th. On the heels of the Mary Cassatt retrospective at the Art Institute, this 1992 play brings to life what women painters like Cassatt faced in the late 19th century as they struggled to be taken seriously in a male-dominated field. The gender differences therein paint a picture of life during the Age of Impressionism, and make cogent analogies for the issues men and women face today.

In the lobby of the Chicago Dramatists Theatre Woman Made Gallery has arranged for the exhibit of photographs by WMG member Karen Abbott. Audiences attending selected Sunday performances are encouraged to participate in post-show discussions led by a variety of professional women who will examine gender roles in areas of expertise ranging from photography to law. On the Sunday, January 17, 1999, the discussion will be led by Woman Made Gallery directors, Beate Minkovski and Janet Bloch. Woman Made members will receive a reduced rate for tickets. Call 312-458-9182 for more information.

words

Carnival
[a eulogy of fear]
© Pamela Callahan

I was attacked last night
but it’s not real I think
just some wild imagining
Fellini in the neighbors’ milling
Sunday evening party on the block--
we just forgot the barbecue.
The valets and the prostitutes were on the corner playing patty-cake
and my policeman did look like Pinocchio.

While my attacker, on the other hand,
I could not exactly pin right down as he did me.
Instead I stammered out some things that might have been
had it been real and they were absurdly few:
freckles on a paler black man,
forty maybe fifty-two,
light blue shirt with words upon it,
couldn’t tell you what they said.

My poor puppetman, dyslexic,
kept on sending white shirt with blue lettering
out over cackling radiowaves and I did
surf around back alleys of my neighborhood
[oh so discreetly]
in a creeping squad car
hardly seeing anything between the smudged up 3 inch glass
and my convulsive bodyquakes.

The way we kept parading
up and down the streets,
I felt like gently waving as the mayor’s wife
to all balloon-head people
whose marshmallow eyes all wide and jovial and round
did loom up to my window.
They were only out enjoying the same gorgeous night that I had been;
it’s just that my banana bread was burning.

He did say, my driver, also wearing blue,
light blue, but heavy on the starch,
‘I’m going to take you where they have a suspect now in custody’
though maybe I mistook it for
‘I’m going to take you where the carnival is now in Muskogee’
for suddenly I felt like cotton candy
and when glancing at the rear view,
I could see his nose was growing longer.

My marionette kept driving,
throwing wooden words at me:
‘You know, you have to stop your crying
if I’m to help at all.’
I wanted then to touch his chest,
to see if it did move with breath,
for at least the man who got away possessed
the rarest form of human anger.

Strange I guess, to feel akin to my attacker
more than to my rescue guy,
but I know fear alone did save me;
fear gave true deliverance
and I marvel still how it did fight
with raw steel gnashing teeth
then turned to soften, cradle me
and gently lullaby...

My fear, my savior,
now does glow
around me like a blessed halo.
I worship every time I walk alone,
and meditate on turning quick around
to face some racing feet I thought I heard.
I walk [I pray] with ratlike instinct
circling my shoes.

I envision how we stood:
two-legged animals, mad man and I,
pinnatas swinging in dead air
just waiting for the blow,
the party to begin.
We swayed a still and soundless dance,
all in all a doomed romance:
one of us was hollow.

It’s that moment that plays over, mute, in my television soul,
not those eyes ablazing like some hallelujah-joe,
not the killer grip upon my neck and
not the knife he’d slice right through if I did not submit
not the words ‘I’m not a rapist’ given nervously it seems and
not my silent vampire screams
not disgusting whisper growls
not ‘I’ll fuck you through your bowels’----

No, it wasn’t in the capture that does spook me now,
or even walking past that darkened place,
More it’s in remembering the dance beforehand,
that surreal face to face,
so graceful in its terror.
That’s what flashes back and on again,
a movie in the street below my window where I sit
instead of slumbering.

Just a movie wherein I’m Ginger;
he is Fred or Ray or Gene
and all the prostitutes are ballerinas, yet to be redeemed.
Policemen tumble all around us
tangled up in string and wearing diapers,
and my dear neighbors all out walking this enchanted autumn night
smile while their bright balloon-heads, severed,
float up into the sky.

Letter from a WMG Member

Dear Woman Made Gallery,

Thank you for including my painting "Dream Sisters" in the Members’ Show at Woman Made Gallery. It was a powerful show, and I was proud to be a part of it. My husband, Mike, and I had a wonderful time in Chicago, and we enjoyed the reception very much, and also meeting you and so many other interesting people.

On Friday, the day of the reception, we went to the Art Institute of Chicago. It was a joy to see all those master paintings, though sadly, so few by women. Georgia O’Keefe is well represented there (thankfully), and the Mary Cassatt show is coming. Still, I only counted three women whose work was represented there in that huge museum. (I believe California museums are a little more progressive in that regard, though there is much room for improvement here, too. Currently the Oakland Museum and UC Berkeley Art Museum are exhibiting the works of Joan Brown.) Even in the bookstore at the Art Institute, I felt rather bereft, wondering, "Where are all the women?" Then when I got to Woman Made Gallery, I said to myself, "Oh! Here they are! Here are the women’s voices."

I don’t know if you tried to pick a theme or not for the exhibition, but, to me, it came out as a theme anyway. It was all about being a woman. Of course they wanted to talk about violence against women. Of course they want to talk about breast cancer, women’s bodies, openings and eggs, childbirth and children, youth and aging everything through the eyes of women.

I think it was good for Mike to see it. He feels his awareness has grown. I remember thinking, "This is where I am understood, and I understand them through their work, because they are all my ‘Dream Sisters’."

It is hard to be back home again. I feel like I went to the moon and back. Though I have been working a long time in art, those women give me courage to keep on working and keep on connecting. I hope I see you all again soon. In the meantime, my deepest thanks for all that you are making possible.

Sincerely,
Sally Ruddy

WMG Webpage

Visit us at http://www.womanmade.org and find out more about the gallery and its events. You can print out entry forms to upcoming shows, membership forms, or e-mail us your comments, questions and suggestions to gallery@womanmade.org. We will try to answer all mail as soon as we can.

Our web page was designed by Galganov and Associates in Cambridge, Ontario and we are thankful to Yvonne and Mason Galganov for their continued work in making sure our web page looks professional. Galganov & Associates is a successful web page design company. You can admire their own web page and many others by visiting their site at http://www.galganov.on.ca.

Call to Members with Websites

We are looking for Woman Made members who have websites. We’d like to have a section on our webpage with links to various organizations and women artists. If you are interested in linking up, call the gallery or e-mail us with your web address.

Still Looking for a Few Good Women

Woman Made has expanded its board of directors. We are looking for women who are committed feminists with time and skills they can contribute to our organization. Still needed are 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.

Have you been trying to figure out how to lend your talents to Woman Made??? Have we got the place for you! The recently formed fund raising committee is off and running and we need you! We need volunteers for three fabulous fundraisers planned for this year. The first is the Spring Soul-stice Bus Tour on March 20 featured in an article in this newsletter. The second is our Second Annual Walk-a-Thon scheduled for Saturday, May 15th. Last year we had lots of fun and raised $6,000 for the Gallery. We want to double that amount this year and need your help again to do it. Our third event is a glamorous gala sometime in the Fall. Let’s make the Woman Made Art Auction one of THE events of the year!! If you would like to volunteer your time and talents to any or all of these three events or if you would like to be a member of the fundraising committee please call the Gallery at 312-328-0038 and someone will getback to you with details.

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:

Dinah Abram, Roberta Reb Allen, As You Like It – Pat Murray, Judith Anderson, Dr. Sandra Beaty, Heather Beck, Deb and David Beckman, Andrea Bempong, Marian Berg, Cali Bergold, Penny Burns, Helena Buturma, Katie Calhoun, Mary Anne Cataldi, Laura Coyle, Diana Cutrone, Anne Elizabeth, Ed Emering, Irene and Michael Falconer, Nazaré Feliciano, Jan Flapan, Claire Foreman, Julie Foreman-Schechter, Pam Grout, Beverly Lapine, Deborah Levenson, Karen Gagich, Shirley Guay, Pat Guizzetti, Angela Harken, Rebecca Harder, Carol Hirsch, Heidi Hollman, Stacy Renée Holtz, Deborah Hughes, Amy Huisinga, Pam Hulvey, Kim Hunt-Rhymes, Joanne Spencer Kantrowitz, Catherine Keebler, Tatyana Khvtisiashvili-Egan, Rosalie Koldan, Eileen (Louie) Laskowski, Susan Levi, Char Maine, Velge Malek, Suesi Metcalf, Roberta Mezinskas, Peggy Miller, Margaret Mine, Joyce Morishita, Victoria Nahas, Margaret Newman, Sonja Oliveri, Karen Perl, Mary Phelan, Martha Phillips, Julie Pitzen, Cherry Rahn, Carol Rizzolo, Suzanne Robinson, Sally Ruddy, Sheila Scacco, Laurie Schirmer-Carpenter, Solveig Sullivan, Linda Kramer Silber, Dr. Violetta Simov, Karen Sorenson, Leah Sosewitz, Staara, Katherine Strause, Elena Tabachnick, Valerie Taglieri, Michael Taylors, Anna Tyler, Susan Varisco, Gloria Wager, Ann Wasserman, and Beverly Zacharias, Elizabeth Zorn.

Please check our next issue if your name has not been included yet.

A Special Thanks to

Robin Barcus for her article on Woman Made Gallery in the Chicago Women’s Caucus for Art {CWCA} Newsletter. Cali Bergold at Café V for her generous donations of food and drink for the Members’ Breakfast, and the openings of Animal Stories, Grief and Loss, the Member’s Brunch and the Holiday Bazaar reception. Marcia Fensin, Claire Foreman, Pauline Kochanski and Ginny Sykes for the use of their easels to display artwork in the Silent Victims exhibition in Springfield. Barbara Joabson from Babette’s Catering for donation of 10 funny breads for our Member’s Brunch. Regina Maniaci for donation of handpainted mugs with our logo on it plus a transistor radio. Christo Otzkinov, Corona Woodturning & Millwork for handmade exhibition display unit. Sally Ruddy for donating a wonderful catalog, The Art of Joan Brown, to our Woman Made library. The 320-page book is published by The University of California Press and is available through the Oakland Museum of California at 1-888/OAKMUSE (625-6873). Thank you Sally Ruddy for generously contributing $500 in support of our mission. Thanks to Alison Witt-Janssen you can now view selected artwork from our exhibitions on our web-site (http://www.womanmade.org).

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