Name: Claire

Sophomore

Major: Art History and Gender & Sexuality Studies

CFS Concentration: Field Studies in the Humanities

 

This quarter I interned at Woman Made Gallery in Chicago. As an Art History and Gender & Sexuality studies major, working at a feminist art gallery has been an incredibly valuable experience. I have been able to learn about the inner workings of a non-profit art gallery as well as make great connections with prominent artists and art educators in Chicago and throughout the United States.

Our solo show at the gallery features artist Shoshanna Weinberger, whose paintings address issues of power, beauty, sexuality, and the black body. Her work is extremely relevant to my current art history class Black Visual Culture: Race and Representation, and I was able to talk to her during the opening of her show. Since then we have been in contact and she has agreed to let me interview her for my final project. Through Woman Made, I have been able to make contacts with a wide variety of people active in the art world that I would not have met otherwise.

I have also learned a lot of valuable skills in art installation, administration, and research. I have been active in the striking and installation process as we transition between shows, have helped facilitate fundraising events, maintained records and mailing lists, among other projects as well. However, what has been most exciting for me is my work on a research project Woman Made is conducting to investigate the percentages of female representation in commercial art galleries. We surveyed top galleries from around the country and calculated the percentage of female to male artists shown in these institutions. Though we are still working on the project, our initial findings have revealed that there is still a lot of work to be done to achieve Woman Made’s mission of ensuring the equal placement of women’s art in the world.