back from the land of no internet

going back to the last week in London,

I made a trip down to Goldsmith's University to research at the MAKE women's art library. Althea Greenan, the Librarian in charge of the collection toured my through and then let me work through the TONS of information. The MAKE library was started by a bunch of women, or rather a small group of women artists that wanted to provide awareness about women artists. The magazine grew from just a simple leaflet, and isn't being published any longer but it's a really interesting collection on women's art. Women artists were asked to submit slides of their work, and over time some artists continues to submit work, so their whole practice is catalogued. The original goal of MAKE was to create a slide library but the collection contains books, press clippings, you name it...
I think it's interesting because there was no requirement or screening process for who was allowed to be part of this libary, the definition of a woman artist is huge within this library. Women had an easy, and seemingly comfortable place to share their work. The collection commissioned a press clipper at one point, and since they got paid for every women in the arts related article in the UK they clipped literally everything! There are teeny articles from tiny newspapers from small towns all over the place advertising a local woman showing her paintings at the community church. The collection is very homespun sort of, and nothing was turned away. At the same time, Artists like Audrey Flack had big boxes of clippings, catalogues and work. That really interested me, how women define themselves as an artists, and how their greater communities define women artists.
It was also interesting to look through the first editions of the MAKE magazine, a single 11x17 sheet folded in half, black and white, discussing the groups struggle for funding, womens' experiences during residencies and then how it grew into a large, color printed magazine all about women artists. Althea was generous enough to give me a whole stack to take back. She also gave me a contact at Rutgers, which apparently has a very extensive collection also.
She ans I had a really interesting conversation before I left about her involvement in the collection. She is an American living in London, and she came to Goldsmith's specifically for the MAKE collection. She did some writing and editing for the magazine along the way also. After looking through the materials she pulled, I mentioned to her about how I really felt the collection gave the impression that the women within in balanced being artists with other things. That was a main topic of discussion with many of the women designers I spoke to. The MAKE collection really encompassed every definition out there of a "woman artist." There was one artist's book I looked at that a women had made about conversation she had with her two small sons.

On Halloween my son (age nine) says, "Don't you have any lipstick in the house?"
Mom: "No, I don't wear lipstick."
Son: "You have to admit that it's unusual for a woman around 40 not to have any lipstick."
Mom: "Some women don't wear lipstick."
Son: "but it's unusual."


My nine year old son says:
"I want my girlfriend or wife to be pretty, nice, thin, with blue eyes and golden hair, good skin, nice makeup and finger nails that are cut straight across like a razor. She will also be rich."
Mom says, "The only important quality you mentioned is that she should be nice."

Song (age 5): There are more black people in the world than anybody else.
Mother: I think there are more Asians than anybody else.
Son: That means there are more brown people than anybody else.
Mother: No, in terms of color Asians are considered yellow
Son: Oh! Bart Simpson is Asian!
Mother: No
Son: But Bart is Yellow

Other highlights from some of the early magazines:

SCUB (society for cutting up boxes)


Sweatshop, a Womsn's guide to self employment.
The sweatshop pack helps women to become self employed. It allows you to increase your life chances, control your finances and work to your strengths. The pack has been compiled by women who are self employed.

One of the early issues describes an English woman's residency at the Kansas City Art Institute. She felt America was more receptive to women, artists and that the faculty were actually interested in her work. She felt the recession in the US positively effected marginal subcultures (women and artists) and compared students between the two countries:

"the average student is less verbally literate that her British counterpart, although I noticed to real difference in visual literacy."

Clare Rendell, Editorial issue N.13