Steinman

WEAD Magazine

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This post comes to you from Cultura21

The 5th issue of WEAD Magazine is out, and it’s about enviromental/ecological artists responses to “the atomic legacy” – this issue is edited by Susan Leibovitz Steinman. It brings perspectives from Japan, Chernobyl, New Mexico, and US areas threatened by aging nuclear plants in Florida, California and Washington. (WEAD stands for: Women Environmental Artists Directory.)

The online magazine is accessible for free at: http://weadartists.org/atomic-art

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

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Elements: An Eco-Art Conference.

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Have I made it clear? I’m a conference junkie.

Ain’t nothing better than being in a room full of smart people and listening to them talk about the smart things they’ve done. With smart words and smart brains. And especially now, when the green conferences are sprouting up every-which-where, like volunteer plants or something, you can listen to the experienced and the earthy-heroic, all at once. Smart and savory, your basic brain food.

But, unlike most green, super green, shiny-slick-looka-me-green conferences (and boy, do I love those), the producers of the Elements Eco Art Conference were exclusively women, and women with a very clear stated agenda: they were The Northern California Women’s Caucus for Art.

That official part explains the special certificate bestowed upon the conference by Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner. But it also explains the style of the conference itself. Held in the shiny-green David Brower Center, bereft of plastic bottles but packed with compostables and a small altar, Elements was a gathering of some of the women who have been doing this eco-art thing for a long time. In some cases, 10 years. In some cases, 40. In most cases, before you figured out that it was a pretty cool thing.

And so we heard from Susan Leibovitz Steinman and the Recology Artists in Residence. And so we heard from Tierney Thys and Andree Singer Thompson. In the meantime, the presenters talked through a stream of technical glitches, and you could make art postcards and trade them, and we all looked under our seats when somebody lost a notebook. Because despite the fact that much of the work discussed was ground-breaking, iconic or simply Hella Good, the focus never strayed from its purpose. That we were here for the art, not the artist, that we were gathered for a purpose, not a form.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Nobody was barefoot. There were no drum circles. There was a bit of a libation, but no sage. The refreshing thing lacking was the ego. The puffed-out-chest of “I’m smart and here to talk about my smartness.” Which I usually love. It was refreshingly absent. It was, simply, all about the work, and the places the work was from.

Maybe it’s just humbling when your power-point doesn’t work, or when you know everyone in the room by name, or when you just get to make art in service to the planet. And it doesn’t have anything to do with being a lady. But regardless, Leibovitz-Steinman said a smart thing: “Many young women today think they don’t need to be feminist . . . but the fact is we’re standing on the shoulders of these women.” She’s got a chart that lays it all out for you, all the way back to Silent Spring, the work of another grounded woman. Was she even a feminist?

I’ll be taking tomorrow to go over more of the smart details, but for now, my brain is fed.

Go to the Green Museum

WCA Elements: Eco Art Conference page @ Brower Center

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On Friday, June 25th, there are three panels arranged to flow in series, on after another and they are Genre's of Eco-Art, Collaboration and Community and in the afternoon, Issues and Activism

Genres of Eco-Art: Moderator, Deborah Thomas with  Susan Leibovitz Steinman and Ruth Wallen as panelists.

Collaboration and Community: Moderator Susan Leibovitz Steinman with  Joyce Cutler-Shaw, Jennifer Colby, Deborah Munk and Tierney Thys as panelists.

Issues and Activism: Moderator, Michelle Lipsinki with Andree Singer Thompson, Beverly Naidus, Daniella Russo and  Samantha Fields as panelists.

There are also short films being shown in a separate room, during these panels and through the breaks.

You can spend your day in either place, or mingling with the other attendees. At your hosted luncheon the panelists will have tables earmarked for conversation topics, relevant to the work of the panelist.

Entrance fee for the entire conference is $90 in advance and $125 at the door. Conference schedule is at the bottom of this page.

Elements Conference schedule on June 25th, 2010 at the David Brower Center, 2150 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA 94704

WCA Elements: Eco Art Conference page @ Brower Center.

Women Environmental Artists Directory

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MISSION STATEMENT

Focusing on women’s unique perspectives we collaborate internationally to further the field and understanding of ecological and social justice art.

PURPOSE

  • To provide information regarding the ecoart and social justice art fields to artists, curators, writers, art and public art administrators, educators in art and ecology, cross-disciplinary professionals and others.
  • To facilitate international networking among artists working with ecological and social justice issues.
  • To further the fields of, and the understanding of environmental and social justice art.

OPEN TO ALL WOMEN ARTS PROFESSIONALS, REGARDLESS OF MEDIA, WHOSE WORK EXPLORES, EDUCATES &/OR COMMENTS ON ECOLOGICAL & SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES.

WEAD is not juried. Our goal is to be inclusive of the broadest spectrum of women’s contemporary eco and social justice art. The Wead website provides a place for women arts professionals to define themselves and their work. Each writes her own entry, describing interests, intents, materials, philosophy, and aesthetics.

ECOFEMINIST ART

WEAD does not proscribe to a single definition for ecofeminism or ecoart, nor one set of cultural, political, or social beliefs. Instead, WEAD celebrates a spectrum of differences under the colorful collective umbrella called ecofeminist art. WEAD women speak in their own voices, definite their own work and map its place in the world. Together we work toward a just, sane, healthy world for all.

HISTORY

In 1996 Jo Hanson, Susan Leibovitz Steinman and Estelle Akamine created WEAD in response to increasing requests for artist referrals and for designing ecoart exhibits and programs. Rather than create one static program, they decided it was best to develop a programming tool that others could continue to use to develop more programs. Word-of-mouth networking started in January, by WEAD’s presentation in March at the Regional N. CA. Women’s Caucus for the Arts, there were more than 100 listing artists. From 1996 to 2004, with more than 200 listees, editions were labor intensive cut-and-paste, xerox editions. In 1998 Estelle retired, and Jo and Susan were joined by a brilliant new group of 10 activist women artists, creating the WEAD Board of Directors, a collective volunteer creative force that continues to produce and direct all WEAD publications and outreach programs. In 2004-2006 editions were digitally mastered, a slick step up in the publishing world. But our website, begun in 1999 was our most successful form of communication, reaching by far the largest audience with the smallest carbon footprint and cost. In 2008 we suspended printing on paper. Now in 2010, at the ripe age of 15, WEAD launches this newly expanded and greatly improved interactive website. Please join us, spread the word, and use the site well and often.

EDITORS’ RESERVATION RE LISTINGS

WEAD reserves the right to refuse listings that are inappropriate in any way, and/or commercial in intent.

We are a member of INTERSECTION INCUBATOR

Intersection Incubator connects artists with funding resources, management consultants, discount classes, networking events, and collaboration opportunities. This is a program of Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco’s oldest alternative arts space, presenting ground-breaking work in the literary, performing, visual and interdisciplinary arts.
Info & applications are available online www.theintersection.org Or call (415) 626-2787

About Us « Women Environmental Artists Directory.