Women in Action!: Historicizing Feminist Collaboration Despite the resurgent and welcome interest in women artists with blockbuster exhibitions, such as “WACK!: Art and Feminist Revolution” and “Global Feminisms,” there remains little art historical consideration of the role of collaboration in feminist art. Most recently, “Making It Together: Women’s Collaborative Art and Community,” featured at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, drew attention to this subject, but much of the art featured is already well documented and further entrenched the focus on New York and Los Angeles. A larger problem in historicizing communally produced art is art history’s lingering emphasis on the individual artist and the primacy of the art object. In addition, archival material is often limited, especially when associations were short-lived. Given the renewed commitment to feminist art history, this session proposes to begin a wider dialogue on this topic by seeking papers that examine the history of women’s collectivity, whether in the form of arts organizations and/or cooperatively produced exhibitions, installations, murals, and performances. Further, papers that situate women’s collaboration within the question of intersecting oppressions of ability, class, ethnicity, gender, race, and sexuality are especially welcome.

Submissions due April 20th, 2009. Please fill out a paper proposal form (available at secollegeart.org) and a CV for consideration.

Email submissions to: Andrew Hottle ( hottle@rowan.edu) and Joanna Gardner-Huggett (jgardner@depaul.edu)

SECAC’s 2009 conference will take place at the University of Southern Alabama (Mobile, AL) from October 21-24, 2009.

If you have any questions about the panel, please feel free to email either of the session chairs listed above.