____________________________________________________________________
Report on TFAP-FL Activities, June 2006-February 2007
The Feminist Art Project-FL (TFAP-FL) has had two general meetings to date. The first was held at the Bernice Steinbaum Gallery in Miami. The second was held at the Ft. Lauderdale home of artist and collector Francie Bishop Good. A third is scheduled for April 21st, 2007 at the Harn Museum, University of Florida, Gainesville.
TFAP-FL has established the following 6 working groups—accomplishments are summarized under each group:
1) Resources -- This group works on identifying existing exhibitions, classes and public programs that are addressing feminism and art in some fashion. It also develops or encourages the development of new courses and public programs. This group and the Outreach group are oriented to education systems and institutions, including universities, community colleges and high schools.
Accomplishments – A request was sent to every member on the TFAP-FL list (now numbering 57) asking that they either report on classes or publications they themselves were offering or had published related to feminism and art, or to forward the request to someone in an academic institution they believed might be offering same. The results were disappointing. Only 6 of the 20 TFAP-FL colleagues on the list who are either professors of art history or studio art, or graduate students, responded. Of those 6 responding, 4 reported either currently preparing a publication, teaching a class that focused on feminism and art, had some connection with it, or planned to do so sometime before 2010.
2) Outreach -- This group works closely with the Resources group, but its focus is on students at all levels of Florida's education system, and on young people of the "X" and "Y" generations. The group seeks to improve the understanding of these students and young people of the history and current reality of the feminist art movement; and encourages the involvement of art and art history students particularly to become involved in TFAP-FL (as interns, organizing their own campus projects, in high schools, etc.)This group seeks also to address/redefine/deal with the term "feminist" and the perception among this population that the term seems to foster gender boundaries.
Accomplishments: Only one member of this working group has been active to date, and her outreach commenced long before TFAP was in existence. However, her program, which targets high school level girls at risk (many have been in detention centers) and is part of a museum education program, is highly innovative, and is being replicated around the US.
3) Networking -- The focus of this group is on Florida's women artists, seeking to enhance communications between them, especially regarding their involvement in their work with feminist issues and themes. The group also advocates for Florida women artists with museums, not for profit spaces and commercial galleries to encourage them to show more art by women artists. A particular focus of the group is to promote Florida women artists of color. Encouraging the commissioning of new feminist art, advocating for the "sending out" of work by outstanding Florida feminist artists and promoting feminist art for public places.
Accomplishments – Several members of this group, and of the Outreach group collaborated with the Publicity/PR group to produce and distribute a card listing the galleries outside the Art Basel-Miami Beach venues that were exhibiting women artists. This “virtual exhibition” of art by women (and primarily by Miami or South Florida women) artists was popular with the galleries and artists listed. How effectively it steered ABMB audiences to these galleries is unknown, however. The objective to encourage Florida women artists to communicate with each other regarding their work that may address feminist issues and themes has not been addressed, nor have the other objectives.
4) Publicity/PR -- This group develops TFAP-FL's visual identity through the design of a multiplicity of materials for public distribution and web-based communications, and creates recommendations for marketing TFAP-FL.
Accomplishments: This group, which had only 3 members, was very active. The logo at the top of this report was designed by one of the members as was the card distributed at ABMB. They began to develop a marketing plan for TFAP-FL, but this has been postponed as the marketing expert who was working on this had to drop off TFAP-FL because of the press of other involvements.
5) Speakers Bureau -- This group develops lists of excellent speakers on a variety of topics related to the broad goals of TFAP-FL.
Accomplishments -- One member organized a TFAP-Panel for the Florida Consortium of Women and Gender Studies Conference, held in Tampa at the University of South Florida, February 2007. The panelists were all TFAP-FL and included an artist, a museum curator, a university museum education director and professor, a graduate student and an art historian. The purpose of the panel was also to publicize TFAP and feminist perspectives on art to the Women’s Studies community in Florida.
6) Exhibitions -- This group seeks to bring important feminist art exhibitions into Florida museums.
Accomplishments: Contacts have been made with two South Florida museums concerning bringing either the WACK! Or the Global Feminisms show, but to date no success can be reported, although work on this is continuing.
Special Projects:
1) Portfolio of Florida women photographers A TFAP-FL colleague who is a prominent gallerist in Miami has offered to organize a fundraising project for TFAP-FL. It will be a portfolio of 10 photographs, one each from 10 Florida women photographers. The suite will be contained in a box shaped like the State of Florida. The gallerist has also offered to host an exhibition of the photographs at her gallery in Miami as publicity for the project. TFAP-FL will propose that other state TFAPs take this on as state fundraising projects. In order for this to be successful, however, we must find a fiscal agent, as we must have seed money to create the portfolios and their boxes, and we will have to have somewhere to put the funds raised once they are ready to be sold.
2) Intervention at ABMB 2007. An ad hoc ABMB working group has been convened to consider strategies for gaining visibility for feminism (and TFAP-FL) at ABMB.
Ideas currently being considered include:
- a repeat of the card done in 2006, augmented by a bus tour of the venues, bus to be decorated appropriately;
- performance and exhibition of Guerrilla Girls satirizing the peculiarities of ABMB and its (non) relationship to feminism; and/or Coco Fusco in performance; and/or Urban Bushwomen; and or other possibilities. Venues and availability of artists are being researched.
Issues that hamper the potential success of TFAP-FL:
Funding: Several attempts have been made to secure a fiscal agent with no success. Until TFAP-FL has a fiscal agent we will not be able to raise funds. This is a serious problem which must be solved.
Communication: Florida is a very large state, and transportation from one end to the other is arduous if by car, or expensive if by air. There is some rail transport but it is only on the East Coast and is very limited. Attempts have been made to involve TFAP-FL colleagues in organizing electronically by setting up a wiki. This has not been successful. People have found the wiki difficult to work with and to access. Many have asked to be removed from the email list as they find frequent email updates onerous. Telephone contact in a conference mode is not possible for many. We are attempting to involve TFAP-Fl people located in the north and west of the State by scheduling the next meeting in Gainesville, which is located in the north central area of the State, and thus much more easily accessed by those in the north and west than Miami and Ft. Lauderdale in the extreme southern end of the state.
Inactivity: According to the TFAP-FL listing, the number, diversity of professional art arenas in which TFAP-Fl colleagues operate, and diversity of geographical location, affiliations etc., we have the capability to make real impact on the art world in this state. This is why they were suggested to become part of TFAP- However, TFAP-FL colleagues listed are very busy professionals who already have too many eelymosynary involvements. The challenge is for each individual to become motivated to take action herself, both within her own direct sphere of influence, and in reaching out to others on the TFAP-Fl list to develop joint projects. FL. The structure of the art world in Florida which emphasizes city-based art involvement is not conducive to working across the entire geography of the State, and communication difficulties exacerbate this. An important way to enhance self-starting and motivation is enlightened self-interest. Until TFAP-FL members begin to see how TFAP-FL activities can help them, it is unlikely that the current widespread inactivity will improve.
**PLEASE ENTER COMMENTS ON THIS REPORT BY CLICKING HERE When you click here, a window will come up that asks you for the password. Enter it and then click on edit page here and enter your comments.
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.