The Advocate: Clark Art exhibit

Clark Art Institute exhibit one of the many facets of the Berkshire Festival of Women in the Arts

By JUDITH FAIRWEATHER
Thursday, February 19

When the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown was approached about creating events for the Berkshires-wide celebration of International Women's Day 2009 - the Berkshire Festival of Women in the Arts - it was decided the Clark could participate with a lecture or two.

The powers that be turned to Danielle Steinmann, assistant curator of education, to create such a lecture. Steinmann responded with "Women at the Clark," which will be held Wednesday, March 11, at 7 p.m. Her talk will highlight the Clark's co-founder, Francine Clary Clark, and discuss great women artists in the Clark's collection, including Mary Cassatt, Berthe Morisot and Marie Louise Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun.

In addition, on Wednesday, March 25, at 7 p.m., Sarah Lees, the Clark's associate curator of European art, will broach the question "Have There Really Been No Great Women Artists?" The talk will be based on an essay published by Linda Nochlin in 1971 that bore the provocative title "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?"

But another event grew out the Clark's participation as well, according to Sarah Hammond, curatorial assistant.

"When the discussions first came up about programming highlighting women, (exhibiting) artists from our collection was the next natural step," she said.

Thus was born "Women's Work," an exhibit of 13 works on paper, including photographs, prints and drawings, which will be on view Saturday, Feb. 21, through Sunday, April 19.

"The education department and one of our curators were already participating in the lectures, so it just made sense to draw from our collection," Hammond said.

'Really comprehensive'

The idea of participating in a Berkshires-wide festival, the outgrowth of the International Women's Day Conference held annually at Bard College at Simon's Rock, apparently made sense to many Berkshire venues - there are more than 60 events scheduled during the month of March.

Last summer, Eugenie Sills, publisher of The Women's Times, was talking with her friend, Jennifer Browdy de Hernandez, a professor at Simon's Rock and organizer and founder of the annual conference there. They were discussing the theme for the 2009 conference - "The Power of Women in the Arts" -which is held in conjunction with International Women's Day in March each year.

Because the topic was so rich, Sills said, Browdy decided to try to create a festival around the conference.

"Women are underrepresented in the arts - in being artists, composers, conductors and directors. When you look at the various festivals here, you see the reality that women are underrepresented in many ways," Sills said.

From the seed of that idea came an organized festival coordinated by Sills and The Women's Times, with a glossy brochure, a calendar of events and a user-friendly Web site (thewomenstimes.com/events).

Among the offerings are two signature events. The first is, of course, the Simon's Rock conference, which will kick off Friday, March 6, at 6:30 p.m. with a special staged reading of Carol Gilligan's adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter," followed by a discussion and reception with Gilligan. The conference itself will be held Saturday, March 7, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The second signature event is the "She's Got Moxie!" awards, which will be held in Shakespeare & Company's Founders' Theatre on March 13 with cocktails at 6 p.m. and the program at 7. The women being honored include Kelley Vickery, the founder of the Berkshire International Film Festival; Laurie Norton Moffatt and Ellen Spear, co-founders of the Berkshire Creative Economy Council; and Sara Katzoff, co-founder of the Berkshire Fringe Festival.

"In all of these cases, here were four women we felt had really shown moxie, but had not yet been recognized because their ventures are fairly new on the scene," Sills said.

As for the remaining events, the breadth of the offerings is incredible. From performances at places like Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, to films at venues including Triplex Cinema in Great Barrington, to talks and more at places like the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge and the Lenox Library and to exhibits like the one offered by the Clark, the events span the entire county, which surprised Sills.

"I was skeptical," she said. "I've experienced some resistance to looking at the arts through gender, and this is what we were taking a look at. I was very pleased to see the response and to see that it was so really comprehensive."

'Truly prolific'

A comprehensive look at women artists is just what the Clark was going for in its participation in the festival.

"The Clark is trying to move forward and see what still needs to be done with our programming," Hammond said. "We're starting to branch off in new directions."

The Clark exhibit is interesting in two unique ways, she said.

"The kind of art system (in the 19th century) didn't cultivate women artists in the same way as male artists," she said. "We are calling attention to the fact that women artists were truly prolific but often overlooked."

This was true, she said, either simply because they were women, or perhaps "because they didn't have the same opportunities" for a formal art education that men had.

Of the 13 pieces, photographs by Julia Margaret Cameron, Doris Ulmann, Alice Burr, Anna Atkins and Berenice Abbott will be shown.

"That's kind of an interesting thing to note," Hammond said. "The advent of photography didn't require the traditional art education necessary for painters."

In addition, prints by Mary Cassatt and Kathe Kollwitz and a drawing by Berthe Morisot will be shown.

Hammond said another unique feature of this exhibit is that because of the fragility of works on paper, normally a visitor would have to make an appointment to see these works in the Clark's print study room. They have never been put on view together in this way before.

Hammond said she hoped Clark visitors would take away "an appreciation and maybe a raised awareness of women artists." She also hopes the viewers appreciate the opportunity to see works that are so infrequently on view, and to come away "with a new way of thinking about things."

The March lectures may present visitors with a new way of looking at things, too. Steinmann will talk about Francine Clark, who "had a very interesting life. She was an actress with the Comedie-Francaise, an artist in a sense. She was an illegitimate child and had a child herself (out of wedlock). . He (Sterling) saw himself as a kind of rebel in the family," she said.

"Our goal is to look at things in a new way, to bring women artists back into the mix of history where they often are forgotten," Steinmann said. "Women artists were extraordinary because it was so difficult to achieve the status they achieved during the time in which they were working."

"Women's Work" will be on view at the Clark, located at 225 South St. in Williamstown, Saturday, Feb. 21, through Sunday, April 19. The lecture "Women at the Clark" will be held Wednesday, March 11, at 7 p.m.; "Have There Really Been No Great Women Artists?" is set for Wednesday, March 25, at 7 p.m. The lectures and admission to the Clark are free. Info: clarkart.edu or 413-458-2303. For information about other Berkshire Festival of Women in the Arts events, visit www.thewomenstimes.com/events.php.