“Beyond Landscape” FEATURES WEAD MEMBERS

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Date: September 15, 2012 — September 28, 2012
Categories: Exhibitions & Presentations
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Exhibit at Marin Community Foundation Features

JURIED ARTWORK BY WEAD MEMBERS

RECEPTION JUNE 28 — RUNS THRU SEPT 28

 

Photograph by Raheleh Zomorodinia (WEAD Board Member)

 

 

Novato, CA —“Beyond Landscape,” a group exhibition of over 150 juried artworks by artists who are members of WEAD–the Women Environmental Artists Directory, opens at the offices of the Marin Community Foundation in Novato, CA on June 15 and will run through September 28. An opening reception will be held on June 28 from 4:30-­‐6:30 p.m. WEAD’s work focuses on taking care of the planet and sustaining nature as a form of social justice. The mission of the organization is to focus on women’s unique perspectives to further the field and understanding of ecological and social justice art. It is a membership group that includes activist arts professionals, non-­‐professionals, and artists of all genders. The inspiration for this exhibition comes from the Manifesto for Maintenance Art 1969!, written by Mierle Laderman Ukeles, an honorary WEAD artist who has focused on environmental issues for over 40 years. After giving birth to a child in 1968, Ukeles became a “maintenance worker” and fell out of her formal art making. Her manifesto describes actions such as washing, cleaning, cooking, and making preserves as a form of contemporary art. She brought these activities into the museum context in the early 1970s in a performance titled “Hartford Wash,” first performed at the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford, CT. She viewed the manifesto as a world vision and a call for revolution by the workers of survival, who could, if organized, reshape the world.

Artworks in “Beyond Landscape” include painting, photography, sculpture, and mixed media. Jurors of the exhibit were Susan Leibovitz Steinman, artist and co-­‐founder of WEAD (Oakland, CA); Bonnie Sherk, artist and founder and director of Life Frames, Inc. and A Living Library (San Francisco, CA); Gloria F. Orenstein, professor of comparative literature and gender studies at USC (Los Angeles, CA); Randy Jayne Rosenberg, executive director and chief curator for Art Works for Change (Oakland, CA); and Patricia Watts, founder/West Coast curator of ecoartspace (Occidental, CA).

About WEAD

Since 1996 WEAD-­‐-­‐Women Environmental Artists Directory has focused on women’s unique perspectives to further understanding of ecological and social justice art. Run by a hands-­‐on activist board of arts professionals, WEAD has been widely respected both for its printed directory of artists (1996-­‐2009) and, since 1999, for a popular educational networking website. WEAD’s website includes a biannual critical arts magazine featuring essays by independent writers, curators, and artists. WEAD’s online listings continue to present a broad spectrum of women’s contemporary eco and social justice art and serves as a resource to assist women arts professionals in defining themselves and their work, interests, intents, materials, philosophy, and aesthetics. The directory currently has over 300 members. https://directory.weadartists.org

About the Marin Community Foundation

The Marin Community Foundation is the primary center for philanthropy in Marin County, CA and is one of the largest community foundations in the U.S. It manages the assets of the Leonard and Beryl H. Buck Trust and over 400 funds established by individuals, families, and businesses. The Foundation makes significant improvements in communities around the world in two ways: by spearheading initiatives for long-­‐term, sustainable change in Marin, and by distributing grants from donor-­‐advised funds locally, across the U.S., and around the world. Now in its 25th year, the Marin Community Foundation has assets of approximately $1 billion, with annual grant distributions of about $50 million. www.marincf.org An example of art from “Beyond Landscape” is on the following page.

Exhibit at Marin Community Foundation Features Art with Environmental Justice Theme

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