The Feminist Art Project Florida

Report from Organizing Meeting

Bernice Steinbaum Gallery

June 8, 2006

NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 11:30 AM-3 PM, home of Francie Bishop Good, 1700 SE 4th Street, Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

Attending: Mary Jo Aagerstoun (Co-Coordinator, FAP-FL; facilitating), Claire Breukel, Rebecca Brienen, Carol Brown, Lou Anne Colodny, Denise Delgado, Lynn Gelfman, Denise Gerson, Francie Bishop Good, Rosie Gordon-Wallace, Marilyn Gottlieb-Roberts, Paula Harper, Nina Johnson, Joyce Kaiser, Helen Kohen, Billie Lynn, Carol Prusa, Karen Rifas, Terre Rybovich, Bernice Steinbaum, Sara Stites, Eugenia Vargas.

Summary of Meeting Outcomes:

The meeting was organized around three primary objectives:

1) Providing information on the Feminist Art Project. Packets were provided that included a description of the Project’s origins, names of those serving on the national committee, description of the State Coordinator’s role, bios on FAP-FL co-coordinators Bearor and Aagerstoun, copy of the application form (also on the FAP website at: http://feministartproject.rutgers.edu/participate.html) to register a local project on the website calendar, and where to go to download the FAP logo (http://feministartproject.rutgers.edu/logo).

Participants were alerted that FAP’s purpose is to bring together a broad range of activities nationwide concerning women and the arts; and that FAP does not organize individual events or provide funding.

2) Identifying resources in the group. Although the intent was for the meeting to organize the FAP statewide in Florida, attendance at the meeting was heavily from Miami. Packets provided included a complete list of all individuals invited and contact information for each. Of the 22 attending, there were two participants from Ft. Lauderdale and two from Palm Beach County. Individuals invited, but unable to attend were from a broader geographic area, including Winter Park (3), Gainesville (1), Tampa-St. Petersburg (1); Tallahassee (4) and Palm Beach County (2).

Within the Miami-heavy group of participants in the organizing meeting there was diversity in terms of kinds of professional involvement in the arts: 7 working/exhibiting artists; 3 art historians/academics; 5 gallerists/curators (commercial and alternative space); 2 studio art professors; 1 librarian; and four involved in other areas of the arts.

Resources identified among the group of participants at this meeting included:

Assoc. Director (curatorial) of U of Miami Lowe Museum (has two exhibitions already scheduled that could qualify for FAP)

Key staff of Miami-Dade library system (can provide space for meetings/discussions/archiving FAP-FL materials)

Expertise in setting up/administering websites, blogs, listservs

Expertise on the Caribbean-Caribbean artists

Involvement (as staff, volunteers, board members) of after-school programs

“Pirate” radio program featuring arts related programming and interviews

Board member (SE/FL representative), Alternative Roots (art and social justice organization)

Leadership in youth oriented community groups

Young professionals in the arts (curators, other arts—not just visual) who are “feminist by nature” but may not describe themselves as “feminist”

Expertise in organizing exhibitions

Studio art professors engaging students with feminism

Key professionals in not for profit art spaces

Art historians working in “older” art periods

Individuals unable to attend the organizing meeting who wish to be involved should notify Karen or MJ of the resources to which you have access.

Anyone wishing to have her name removed from the FAP-Fl list, please alert MJ as soon as possible.

3) Action Priorities

Working in small groups, the participants considered a list of key actions for FAP Florida, identified during a canvass of everyone invited, conducted by Mary Jo Aagerstoun prior to the meeting itself. Additional items were added during the meeting, and each item of the amended list was awarded, in small group discussions, a number from 1-10, 1 being the easiest to accomplish and 10 being the most difficult. The final list, organized from “easiest” to “most difficult” was as follows:

=Identify resources—this to include seeking exhibitions/classes/public programs already planned going forward and sending them in to the FAP website

=Fostering a “rhizomic” approach to organizing FAP in Florida

=Organizing/administering a FAP “Blog”/website or listserv

=Outreach to student artists/art historians and other young people of the X and Y generation re: improving their understanding and knowledge of the history and current reality of the feminist art movement

=Networking of artists around feminist issues/themes in art

=Involving (art/art history) students in the Feminist Art Project (interns, organize own projects on campus, etc.)

=Publicity/PR for FAP in Florida

=Identify existing/develop new courses on feminist art or on feminist approaches to “older” (eg not contemporary) art

=Identify sources to fund FAP Florida (overall)—not including actually getting funding

=Fostering equity for women artists (meaning: advocating with museums, not for profit spaces and commercial galleries to show more Florida women artists)

=Promotion of Florida women artists of color (advocating with museums/not for profit spaces/commercial galleries)

=Development of speakers’ bureau

=Encourage/commission new feminist art

=Advocate for feminist art in public places

=Addressing/redefining/dealing with the term “feminist” and the gender boundaries it seems to foster

=Encouraging the “sending out” of the state of work by outstanding Florida feminist artists

=Bringing exhibitions of feminist art into Florida (participants were provided with brief descriptions of three existing shows: WACK-from Los Angeles; Global Feminisms –from Brooklyn; and Women artists and postmodernism –from Rutgers)

Once this list was compiled, the participants were invited to indicate which items they are interested in working on. These were:

“Rhizomic” organization for FAP-Florida – Marilyn Gottlieb-Roberts

Statewide communications, eg “Blog”/website/listserv – MJ Aagerstoun, Karen Bearor

Networking of Florida feminist artists – Denise Delgado, Rosie Gordon-Wallace, Terre Rybovich

Speaker’s Bureau – Rosie Gordon- Wallace, Denise Delgado

“Sending out” of the state of work by outstanding Florida feminist artists – Denise Delgado

Bringing feminist art exhibitions to Florida – Francie Bishop Good, Bernice Steinbaum, Denise Delgado

Individuals unable to attend the organizing meeting are invited to inform Karen or MJ of which of the identified priorities they may be willing to work on.

All those continuing to be interested in making FAP-FL happen should alert either Karen or MJ as soon as possible if there are any events you wish to be part of FAP here.

The events do not have to be scheduled. Please report to one of us if you have begun to organize something or if there is something already planned.This should be done in addition to sending the information to the FAP staff at Rutgers.

Francie Bishop Good, an artist and collector of art by women, offered to host the next meeting, September 26, 2006 at her home in Ft. Lauderdale.

The assembled participants gave a rousing thank-you to Bernice Steinbaum for her hospitality for this organizing meeting, and both to Bernice and to Paula Harper for helping to identify the Miami members of the group.