Women's Caucus for Art


The Women's Caucus for Art, founded in 1972, is a non-profit organization based in New York City, which supports women artists, art historians, students, educators, and museum professionals. The WCA holds exhibitions and conferences to promote women artists and their works and recognizes the talents of artists through their annual Lifetime Achievement Award. Since 1975 it has been a United Nations-affiliated non-governmental organization, which has broadened its influence beyond the United States. Within the WCA are several special interest causes including the Women of Color caucus, Eco-Art Caucus, Jewish Women Artist Network, International Caucus and the Young Women's Caucus. The founding of the WCA is seen as a "great stride" in the feminist art movement.

Overview

The Women's Caucus for Art membership includes artists, students, educators, art historians, and professionals from museums and galleries. The organization holds conferences, produces exhibitions, conducts research and issues awards.
Along with the founding of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, its creation is seen as one of the "great strides have been made in developing an institutional infrastructure for women's art and art history since the 1970s."

History

Background

Within the broader feminist movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s, a feminist art movement began to contest women's under-representation in professional art organizations, art exhibitions and art history textbooks. The movement "was a major watershed in women's history and the history of art." Its slogan was "the personal is political."
In 1969, Women Artists in Revolution formed in response to the inclusion of “only 8 women among the 143 artists shown” at the Whitney Museum’s 1969 Annual. WAR “demanded that the museum change its policies to include more women artists.” In 1971, Linda Nochlin’s "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" and Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro started the Feminist Art Program at Cal Arts, which provided a new arts education for women based on mentorship, training in tools, research about women artists, consciousness-raising, and role-playing. The following year, "Paula Harper and twenty-one participants in the Feminist Art Program" conceived of "a landmark collaborative installation staged in an empty house in Los Angeles" and called Womanhouse

College Art Association Women's Caucus

At its annual conference in San Francisco, women within the College Art Association formed a women's caucus on 28 January 1972, electing Ann Sutherland Harris as the first president. However, tensions developed between this group and the CAA board, and in November 1973 the CAA executive asked "the Women's Caucus, which is not officially affiliated with the CAA, to drop the use of the phrase 'of the CAA' from its name."

Women's Caucus for Art founded

In 1974 Mary Garrard, president of the caucus from 1974 to 1976, oversaw the formation of the Women's Caucus for Art as an independent non-profit organization. Arlene Raven, who, with Judy Chicago and Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, founded the Feminist Studio Workshop of Women's Building, was also part of WCA's roots as was Eleanor Dickenson. The WCA grew, establishing regional chapters and publishing research on women's art. Membership broadened from predominantly art historians to a majority of women artists, and the third president, Judy Brodsky, was herself an artist rather than art historian.
In 1977 the Coalition of Women's Art Organizations was formed as a political arm of the WCA.

Organizational structure

The Women's Caucus for Art is a national member organization with 23 regional chapters located throughout the United States. The headquarters, in New York City, is an umbrella organization governed by a national board of directors consisting of an executive committee, regional vice presidents, standing committee chairs, directors ) and board-appointed advisors. The National President is voted in by the membership for two-year terms. Half of the board is nominated by the incoming president and approved by the board, and the other half is voted in by chapter representatives.
Many of the regional chapters are organized as separate 5013 non profit organizations. The Northeast Region consists of WCA New Hampshire, Central Mass WCA, WCA New York, and Philadelphia WCA. The Southeast Region consists of Greater Washington DC WCA, WCA Georgia, WCA Alabama, WCA Florida, and WCA Louisiana. The Midwest Region consists of Chicago WCA, WCA Michigan, WCA Minnesota, WCA Indiana, WCA Nebraska, and St. Louis Missouri WCA. The Southwest Region consists of WCA Colorado and Texas WCA. The Pacific Region consists of WCA Northern California, WCA Peninsula, WCA Monterey Bay, Silicon Valley WCA, Southern California WCA and Oregon WCA.

Special-interest caucuses

Within the WCA are several special interest causes including the Women of Color caucus, Eco-Art Caucus, Jewish Women Artist Network, International Caucus and the Young Women's Caucus.
After being appointed to Vice President of Minority Affairs by the President Ofelia Garcia in 1986, artist and activist Faith Ringgold proposed the formation of a women of color caucus. It was within this context that "Coast to Coast", an arts organization for women of color, was created.
The Jewish Women Artist Network was founded by Francia Tobacman. From 2006-2012 it organized national conferences of Jewish related themes. The International Caucus maintains WCA's involvement with the United Nations, develops art exhibitions related to the UN Goals, develops collaborative projects with other global organizations, collects data about WCA's art and activism projects, and shares this information with the larger WCA membership. The Young Women's Caucus supports women artists of who are college students, returning students and young professionals seeking to create a career in art. It provides networking resources to established women artists within the broader organization.

Lifetime Achievement Awards

In 1979 the WCA created the National Lifetime Achievement Awards. The goal was to acknowledge the work of notable women in the arts and stimulate the growth of opportunities within the arts. An important annual function, honorees are selected by a group of notable WCA scholars and artists. A few honorees include painter Georgia O'Keeffe, painter Alice Neel, art historian Lucy R. Lippard, sculptor and painter Selma Burke, and women's museum founder Wilhelmina Holladay.

Awardees

National exhibitions

The Women's Caucus for Art has been a United Nations-affiliated NGO since 1975. An NGO is "any non-profit, voluntary citizens' group which is organized on a local, national or international level. Task-oriented and driven by people with a common interest, NGOs perform a variety of service and humanitarian functions, bring citizen concerns to Governments, advocate and monitor policies and encourage political participation through provision of information." As the liaison group between WCA and the United Nations, WCA's International Caucus members have participated in, and created exhibitions, side events at UN DPI/NGO conferences in support of UN goals and priorities and participated in UN Commission on the Status of Women conferences.
In the fall of 1995, the UN-sponsored Fourth World International Conference on Women was held in China. "The purpose of the conference was to discuss the advancement and involvement of women in world affairs." The WCA sent 100 women artists, art educators and art activists to attend conferences and workshops. "As a reaction to this expedition, the artists were asked to create works depicting their experiences. From this was born the exhibit Beijing and Beyond: Women Artists Respond To The World Conference On Women."