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Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series Collection, 1971-[ongoing]

By William Hemmig and Jesse Traquair

October 2004 / Revised June 2006

Margery Somers Foster Center, Mabel Smith Douglass Library, Rutgers University Libraries

Administrative History of the Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series

Inspired by the women's movement of the 1960s, the women's movement in art began by 1970 to work toward equal representation and recognition of women in contemporary art, and greater inclusiveness in art education. This impulse created the climate for the beginning of the Women Artists Series at the Mabel Smith Douglass Library, Douglass College, Rutgers University. Rutgers' New Brunswick campus already had a vibrant reputation in the contemporary art world, having provided a home for innovators like Allan Kaprow, Roy Lichtenstein, Lucas Samaras and George Segal (1). However, the painter Joan Snyder (Douglass College, 1962 and Rutgers MFA) observed in 1971 that the studio art students of the all-female Douglass College had no female mentors or role models: all the full-time art faculty were male, and the college gallery exhibited only male artists. Snyder contacted Daisy Brightenback (later Shenholm, Douglass College, 1944), the director of the Mabel Smith Douglass Library, to ask if an exhibition of women artists could be held in the lobby and corridors of the library. Brightenback was enthusiastic, and enlisted Lynn F. Miller, a new reference librarian, to serve as coordinator while Snyder served as curator. The 1971/1972 season began with an exhibition of the works of Mary Heilmann and featured altogether eight artists, including Snyder. The Series was one of the first exhibition series in the US dedicated to women artists and the first on the east coast. It provided a venue for women artists, whose works were not shown in mainstream galleries, and created an opportunity for women artists and Douglass College students to interact. Soon the Series captured the attention of the media and the art world beyond Rutgers (2). It remains the longest-running continuous series of exhibitions in the United States dedicated to women artists.

The first season's success led to subsequent seasons, along with expanded budgets and fundraising activities. A deliberate attempt was made to exhibit both established and emerging artists; each season typically featured artists at very different stages in their careers, with artists receiving their first solo exhibitions alongside the likes of Louise Bourgeois, Alice Neel and Nancy Spero. The first annual catalog was published in the second season, funded by the exhibiting artists themselves. A grant from the New Jersey Council on the Humanities in 1974/1975 allowed for the establishment of educational outreach programs, and the recruitment of catalog essayists including Linda Nochlin (3), Lucy Lippard (4) and Lawrence Alloway (5) (6). A series of group exhibitions of New Jersey women artists began in 1974/1975. By 1976 the Series was being discussed in major art periodicals such as Art in America(7) and Arts Magazine(8).

Lynn Miller left Douglass Library in 1979 and Evelyn Apgar (Douglass College, 1969), adding to her responsibilities in the Douglass College Dean's Office, was named Series coordinator. Under Apgar's leadership an Advisory Board was formed from members of the University community, and the establishment of a jury procedure ended the selection of artists by open submissions. A tenth-anniversary retrospective exhibition was held in 1981, which subsequently traveled to the A.I.R. Gallery, a women's cooperative in New York City, and a day-long conference was held entitled "The Women's Art Movement: Ten Years of Change" (9).

Apgar left the University in 1983 and Beryl K. Smith (Douglass College, 1982) became coordinator. A highlight of her tenure was Representative Works, 1971-1984: Women Artists Series, an exhibition of the work of thirty past Series participants, coordinated by Ferris Olin (Douglass College, 1970) and organized jointly with the Women's Caucus for Art/New Jersey Chapter (WCA/NJ), and held during the National Women's Studies Conference at Douglass College in June of 1984 (10). Two years later, the Women's Caucus for Art presented Douglass College with the first WCA institutional award, for its contributions and commitment to women's art. In 1987 a significant endowment fund was established by Professor Emeritus Nelle Smithers in memory of Mary H. Dana (Douglass College, 1942), and the Series was renamed the Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series (11).

Karen McGruder became coordinator in 1991 and immediately oversaw the twentieth anniversary celebration, planned by Beryl Smith, including a retrospective exhibition of works by thirty Series artists, a major public program, and a special issue of The Journal of the Rutgers University Libraries devoted to the exhibition and to the history and significance of the Series (12) (13) (14) (15). Ferris Olin became curator of the Series in 1994, and in the same year established the Contemporary Women Artists Archive (later renamed the Contemporary Women Artists Files) to permanently house documentation on all the women artists who have ever supplied information about themselves to the Series.

The twenty-fifth anniversary celebration in 1996 was even bigger then the twentieth. It included three exhibitions -- Artists' Portraits and Statements was held at Douglass Library, the 25th Year Retrospective Exhibition at the Mason Gross School of the Arts Galleries, and Documents and Images from Feminist Contemporary Art at the Rutgers Libraries' Special Collections and University Archives -- a reception and public programs featuring the lecture Feminist Content, Feminist Form: American Women Artists 1966-1996 by Dr. Judith E. Stein, extensive media coverage, and a commemorative print, Another Version of Cherry Fall, created by Joan Snyder in collaboration with the Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper (RCIPP) master printer, Eileen Foti. The retrospective exhibition featured works by 125 artists and had a substantial catalog with essays by Joan Marter and Judith K. Brodsky. It was curated and the catalog compiled and edited by Marianne Ficarra (Douglass College, 1988) and Ferris Olin, who organized the entire celebration (16).

Other significant publications were generated from their authors' experiences with the Series. In 1981, Lynn Miller and Sally Swenson published Lives and Works: Talks with Women Artists, a collection of interviews with Series artists (17). In 1996, Beryl Smith, Joan Arbeiter and Sally Swenson published a second volume of interviews (18). A Web site was created for the Series in 1999 (19). In 2003/2004, as part of the initial phase of the D21: Douglass Library for the 21st Century renovation project, galleries were created, giving the Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series its first dedicated exhibition space. The first exhibit was of artwork from Douglass Library's permanent collection, including several works by Series artists.

Another Version of Cherry Fall does not represent the first time a work of art was created for the Women Artists Series. In its first season, Jackie Winsor created the sculpture Brick Dome for the front lawn of the Mabel Smith Douglass Library (20). In 1981, a Women Artists Series residency by Alice Aycock (Douglass College, 1968) produced The Miraculating Machine in the Garden (Temple of the Winds), sited next to the Library and recently restored (21) (22). In addition, a number of Series artists, including Lisa Collado, Suzanne Guite, Harriet Kittay, Ora Lerman, Marion Lerner Levine, Mae Rockland and Joan Snyder, have donated works to Douglass Library following their exhibitions.

Educational programs have always played a significant role in the Series' mission of outreach to the Rutgers community. In a first collaboration between the Women Artists Series and a Rutgers academic department, Joan Marter's "Women in Art" class curated the 1982 exhibition Modern Masters: Women of the First Generation, featuring artists Dorothy Dehner, Sari Dienes, Elsie Driggs, Perle Fine, Dorothea Greenbaum, Dorothy Hood, Buffie Johnson, Lois Jones, Esphyr Slobodkina and Jane Teller (23) (24). In 1986 the New Jersey Department of Higher Education funded a Faculty Development and Curriculum Transformation initiative called "Models of Persistence," a team-taught course on 20th century American Art that incorporated the Women Artists Series into the classroom; the team consisted of Louise Duus for Douglass College, Ferris Olin for the Institute for Research on Women, Judith K. Brodsky for Rutgers' Visual Arts Department, and Hildreth York for the Art History Department's Museum Studies Program (25).

An endowment in memory of the artist Estelle Lebowitz provided for the establishment, in 1999, of the Estelle Lebowitz Visiting Artist-in-Residence Lectureship. This ongoing program affords the University community and general public the opportunity not only to view the work of a renowned contemporary woman artist, but also to meet with her in a series of classes and public lectures. Recipients of the lectureship include Carolee Schneemann (1999/2000), Siri Berg (1999/2000), June Wayne (2000/2001), Hung Liu (2001/2002), and Miriam Schapiro (2004/2005) (26).

Series exhibits and programs have routinely been the subjects of spirited discussion, and occasionally of controversy. Student protests arose in 1974 over the works of Bibi Lencek with their strong suggestions of sexual activity. In response, Lynn Miller organized a panel to discuss freedom of expression, and as a result the exhibition continued (27). Similar protests resulted a quarter-century later from an exhibition by Bailey Doogan (Women Artists Series, 1999/2000), whose paintings involved frank depictions of unidealized nude females. Ferris Olin's response was, like Miller's, to turn controversy into an opportunity for education. A seminar on "Censorship, Intellectual Freedom and the Arts" was organized, co-sponsored by the Series and the Rutgers University Libraries Advisory Committee on Diversity, Doogan was invited to give a talk on censorship at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, and a reading file consisting of copies of journal articles, reviews and visual resources about the artist, was placed on reserve at Douglass Library for interested students (28) (29).

This last practice was begun in the previous season in response to negative reactions to the works of Kara Walker in the exhibition Private Eye: A Group Exhibition. Some viewers interpreted Walker's silhouettes and cartoons of African-Americans as destructive negative stereotypes, and the reading file was compiled to augment knowledge of Walker's background and artistic intentions (30). Racial stereotypes had also been a controversial issue in the works of Eve Sandler (Women Artists Series, 1997/1998). A panel presentation, "Hair Culture: African American Women, Beauty and Identity," had already been planned during the run of Sandler's exhibition, but when her sculptural forms made largely of synthetic hair and fingernails were seen by some viewers as enforcing negative stereotypes, these issues were incorporated into the presentation, in which Sandler was one of the presenters, enriching the discussion and the attendees' appreciation of Sandler's work (31) (32).

The power of symbols generated strong reactions in two very different instances, both of which provided opportunities for dialogue and education. In 1988 Vida Hackman inspired protests by incorporating a swastika into her works, which investigated the power of symbols as propaganda; later, University police confiscated as a security threat an inoperable, carborundum-coated rifle incorporated into one of Hackman's pieces, and withheld it for the remainder of the exhibition. As on other occasions, a forum was organized to encourage dialogue (33) (34). An exhibit of works by Michiko Rupnow featured wall reliefs containing artifacts such as bullets, body parts, and harmless bacteria cultures, and its accidental timing soon after the attacks of September 11, 2001 brought on a storm of controversy. Again, a substantial educational campaign was launched and dialogue encouraged (35). Visibility and communication -- between artist and student, student and student, women and the art world -- have always been at the heart of the Series' mission.

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Notes

(1)Joan Marter, ed., Off Limits: Rutgers University and the Avant-Garde, 1957-1963 (Newark, NJ; New Brunswick, NJ, 1999).

(2)Beryl K. Smith, "The Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series: From Idea to Institution," The Journal of the Rutgers University Libraries, 54.1 (1992), p. 4-5.

(3)Lawrence Alloway, Introduction, The Roots of Creativity: Women Artists Year Six (New Brunswick, NJ, 1976), p. 1-2.

(4)Lucy Lippard, Introduction, Women Artists Series Year Five (New Brunswick, NJ, 1975), p. 1-5.

(5)Linda Nochlin, Preface, Women Artists Series Year Four (New Brunswick, NJ, 1974), p. 1-3.

(6)Smith, p. 6-9.

(7)Lawrence Alloway, "Women's Art in the '70s," Art in America, May 1976, p. 66.

(8)Joan Marter, "Women Artists," Arts Magazine, Feb. 1978, p. 23.

(9)Smith, p. 9-10.

(10)Representative Works, 1971-1984, Women Artists Series; and Focused Fragments (New Brunswick, NJ, 1984).

(11)Smith, p. 10-11.

(12)Joan Marter, "Then and Now: Recognition of Women Artists Since 1970," The Journal of the Rutgers University Libraries, 54.1 (1992), p. 25-27.

(13)Ferris Olin, "Thawing the Chilly Climate: Two Decades of Women Artists at Douglass College," The Journal of the Rutgers University Libraries, 54.1 (1992), p. 28-33.

(14)Smith.

(15)Joan Snyder, "It Wasn't Neo to Us," The Journal of the Rutgers University Libraries, 54.1 (1992), p. 34-35.

(16)Marianne Ficarra and Ferris Olin, eds., Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series 25th Year Retrospective: 25 Years of Feminism, 25 Years of Women's Art (New Brunswick, NJ, 1996).

(17)Lynn F. Miller and Sally S. Swenson, Lives and Works: Talks with Women Artists (Metuchen, NJ, 1981).

(18)Beryl Smith, Joan Arbeiter, and Sally Shearer Swenson, Lives and Works: Talks with Women Artists, Volume 2 (Lanham, MD, 1996).

(19)Rutgers University Libraries, Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series (New Brunswick, NJ, 1999-2001), http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/exhibits/dana_womens.shtml

(20)Ficarra and Olin, p. 140.

(21)Ficarra and Olin, p. 144.

(22)Smith, p. 10.

(23)Ficarra and Olin, p. 145.

(24)Women Artists Series, Modern Masters: Women of the First Generation: Dorothy Dehner, Sari Dienes, Elsie Driggs, Perle Fine, Dorothea Greenbaum, Dorothy Hood, Buffie Johnson, Lois Jones, Esphyr Slobodkina, Jane Teller (New Brunswick, NJ, 1982).

(25)Ficarra and Olin, p. 146.

(26)Rutgers University Libraries, http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/exhibits/dana_womens.shtml

(27)Smith, p. 13.

(28)Frederick Kaimann, "Artist Reinterprets the Body Beautiful," Home News Tribune (East Brunswick, NJ), 11 Feb. 2000, p. 7.

(29)Exhibition Materials, Exhibited Artists Files, Folders Doogan, Bailey 1-3.

(30)Exhibition Materials, Exhibited Artists Files, Folders Sillman, Amy 1-3.

(31)Exhibition Materials, Exhibited Artists Files, Folder Sandler, Eve 1.

(32)Hair Culture Program, Operational Files, Folders 1997.9-1997.11.

(33)Ficarra and Olin, p. 147.

(34)Smith, p. 13-14.

(35)Exhibition Materials, Exhibited Artists Files, Folders Rupnow, Michiko, 1-2.

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†Estelle Lebowitz Visiting Artist-in-Residence Lecturer

Adapted from Joanne Zangara, "Chronology," in Marianne Ficarra and Ferris Olin, eds., Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series 25th Year Retrospective: 25 Years of Feminism, 25 Years of Women's Art (New Brunswick, NJ, 1996), p. 130-136. Adapted and updated by William Hemmig, Dec. 14, 2004.

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Scope and Content Note

The Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series Collection, an active collection, documents the Series, the artists who exhibited in it, and contemporary women artists in general, from the beginning of the Series in 1971 to the present. It is currently approximately 30 cubic feet in size. New materials are added, and this finding aid updated, on a regular basis. Media represented include paper, photographic prints and slides, videocassettes, and computer disks.

The collection consists of two distinct subgroups: the Women Artists Series Exhibited Artists Files and the Women Artists Series Operational Files. These subgroups are not further divided into series.

The Exhibited Artists Files subgroup (approx. 15 cubic feet) consists of materials related to the artists who have exhibited in the Series from 1971 to the present. Most of the materials were generated from or collected to support specific exhibitions and other Series activities, but some are general background materials unrelated to a Series activity. Included are correspondence, resumes, artist statements, slides and slide lists, photographic prints, exhibition announcements, checklists and catalogs, press clippings, Series operational records pertaining to specific solo exhibitions, and a small number of VHS videocassettes and 3-1/2" floppy disks.

The Operational Files subgroup (approx. 15 cubic feet) consists of the operational records of the Series from 1971 to 2002 (currently), exclusive of most records related to specific artists, which are located in the Exhibited Artists Files. Materials include operational records related to exhibition planning and implementation, production of the catalogs and other publications, finances, budgets and fundraising, public programs, publicity, and staffing.

Most of the material in the two subgroups is in paper media, including a number of bound exhibition catalogs and several public comment books. Clippings on newsprint and any Post-It notes of research interest have been or are currently being photocopied and the originals discarded. Much of the Operational Files material exists only as photocopies on acid-free paper due to previous preservation initiatives. Photographic materials consist mostly of black-and-white prints of various sizes and 35mm color slides, with color prints, color transparencies, and black-and-white and color negatives found in less significant numbers. Some documents contained on PC-formatted disks have been printed and the printouts have been filed alongside the disks; documents on Mac-formatted disks, zip disks and some PC-formatted disks have not yet been printed. All materials are stored in folders, and the various media are filed together, as they were originally, to preserve the relationships between materials and the integrity of the documentation of each individual activity. The Exhibited Artists Files are housed in filing cabinets and the Operational Files are housed in manuscript boxes.

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Arrangement Note

The records of the Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series are arranged into three subgroups:

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Related Collections

Related collections in Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries include the Lippard Women's Art Registry, the records of the Heresies Collective, inc., the records of the New York Feminist Art Institute, and the records of the Women's Caucus for Art. Related collections in the Margery Somers Foster Center include the Contemporary Women Artists Files.

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Separated Materials

The videotapes from folder 1976.7 in the Operational Files have been temporarily removed for preservation.

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Restrictions

Restrictions

Permission of the Head of the Margery Somers Foster Center is required for access. Additional permission may be required for photocopying. Some folders may be restricted due to the inclusion of sensitive information about living individuals.

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Name and Subject Terms

Personal Names

Corporate Names

Subjects

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Bibliography

Alloway, Lawrence. Introduction. The Roots of Creativity: Women Artists Year Six. Ed. Lynn F. Miller. New Brunswick, NJ: Mabel Smith Douglass Library, 1976. 1-2.

Alloway, Lawrence. "Women's Art in the '70s." Art in America May 1976: 66.

Ficarra, Marianne, and Ferris Olin, eds. Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series 25th Year Retrospective: 25 Years of Feminism, 25 Years of Women's Art. New Brunswick, NJ: Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series, 1996.

Kaimann, Frederick. "Artist Reinterprets the Body Beautiful." Home News Tribune [East Brunswick, NJ] 11 Feb. 2000: 7.

Lippard, Lucy. Introduction. Women Artists Series Year Five. Ed. Naomi Waksberg Kuchinsky. New Brunswick, NJ: Mabel Smith Douglass Library, 1975. 1-5.

Marter, Joan, ed. Off Limits: Rutgers University and the Avant-Garde, 1957-1963. Newark, NJ: Newark Museum; New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1999.

Marter, Joan. "Then and Now: Recognition of Women Artists Since 1970." The Journal of the Rutgers University Libraries 54.1 (1992): 25-27.

Marter, Joan. "Women Artists." Arts Magazine Feb. 1978: 23.

Miller, Lynn F., and Sally S. Swenson. Lives and Works: Talks with Women Artists. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1981.

Nochlin, Linda. Preface. Women Artists Series Year Four. Ed. Naomi Waksberg Kuchinsky. New Brunswick, NJ: Mabel Smith Douglass Library, 1974. 1-3.

Olin, Ferris. "Thawing the Chilly Climate: Two Decades of Women Artists at Douglass College." The Journal of the Rutgers University Libraries 54.1 (1992): 28-33.

Representative Works, 1971-1984, Women Artists Series; and Focused Fragments. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 1984.

Rutgers University Libraries. Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series. http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/exhibits/dana_womens.shtml

Smith, Beryl K. "The Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series: From Idea to Institution." The Journal of the Rutgers University Libraries 54.1 (1992): 4-16.

Smith, Beryl, Joan Arbeiter, and Sally Shearer Swenson. Lives and Works: Talks with Women Artists, Volume 2. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1996.

Snyder, Joan. "It Wasn't Neo to Us." The Journal of the Rutgers University Libraries 54.1 (1992): 34-35.

Women Artists Series. Modern Masters: Women of the First Generation: Dorothy Dehner, Sari Dienes, Elsie Driggs, Perle Fine, Dorothea Greenbaum, Dorothy Hood, Buffie Johnson, Lois Jones, Esphyr Slobodkina, Jane Teller. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, 1982.

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Detailed Description of the Collection/Container List