WE, the Women's Caucus is a biennial juried exhibition of photo-based/light artists that are members of the Women's Caucus within the Society for Photographic Education.
WE, the Women's Caucus stands to celebrate Women, Trans, Gender Non-Conforming, and our diversity with an honorable nod to our solidarity with our identity and medium. These photographic works are responsive pieces that illuminate, question, and challenge societal notions through our individual expression.
The saying "it takes a community" is no joke. This opportunity is a daisy-chain of events and people that without it wouldn't have come to light.
Let's dance down this daisy-chain of our community that made this entire thing a reality:
Wildcats from moons ago organized a group of people with a common interest- the Society for Photographic Education.
Boom! Then some wild women established the Women's Caucus within this organization. Check out the awesome job fellow SPE and Women's Caucus member Rebecca Zeiss did at pulling together the history of the caucus! (side note: I'm so proud of one of my former professors from RISD, Deborah Bright- as she appears several times in the below document.)
Women move mountains, what can WE say!
(read the history of SPE's Women's Caucus here)
Fast forward several years and you have me (JordanneRenner), a member of SPE and the Women's Caucus who decided this historical year (from yesteryear to now) needed to be earmarked by an exhibition opportunity for Women's Caucus members and took initiative to apply for two small-but-mighty grants.
With the blessing of the wild women co-chairs of the Women's Caucus, and the support of the original venue from Contemporary Art Matters, I applied and received a Foto Focus 2020 Biennial exhibition grant.
Realizing exhibitions cost money and I needed a way to source more funding, I also applied for and received as an individual artist the BIG IDEAS grant, from the Greater Columbus Arts Council to help fund this opportunity. This grant also made it possible to provide a small scholarship to a student intern, Andria Parady from Xavier University (also an SPE and Women's Caucus member).
Covid smacked the entire world from foreseeable future events, but WE, the Women's Caucus exhibition needed to continue on- even if via a virtual platform.
But wait! There is more!
The wild woman that I am, and with social distancing in mind, a new venue needed to be secured, so I reached out to the larger art space ROY G BIV and their awesome wild woman director who connected me with the current huge exhibition space 400 West Rich Promenade's rad wild woman director. While all of this was happening, four other badASS women kindly agreed to take on the challenge of the blind jury process to determine the selected participating artists; and Miss Parady created some pretty fabulous illustrations to be used for all social media call and exhibition postings.
Women supporting women.
Women supporting trans.
Women supporting GNC people.
Now that's a BADASS community.
I'm honored to be apart of this community
and grateful for all the incredibles I've met.
WE hope to see you at the opening, and/or
during some of the virtual programming we have
planned for after the holidays.
Until then:
VOTE!
Support the Arts!
Volunteer!
Stay bright, healthy, and be loud about the things that matter.
Yeow!
Jordanne
