In 2019, I began using the Manila envelope in my art. It started as a small experiment while documenting my family’s stories. One day, my mother told me about growing up in the Philippines and watching workers process abaca, also known as Manila hemp, a strong fiber derived from a native banana plant.
There’s a sacred space inside each of us that we rarely visit. Not the noisy thoughts in our head or the insights that propel us into the studio to work on the next art piece for an upcoming show. I’m talking about the deeper voice that sits beneath, the one that asks the question that we may not be ready to hear.
This November, the WCA Art Activism Pod launched Fall of Freedom | Freedom of Expression—a national, pop-up online exhibition built for immediacy, access, and collective voice as part of the Fall of Freedom grassroots movement of artists, writers, performers, and cultural workers defending artistic freedom and resisting authoritarianism through creative action.
This exhibition showcases the work of 21 women artists, providing a vital platform to address long-standing inequities in the art world, particularly relevant given current challenges to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Art can be an incredible and powerful tool for healing. You can look at art, create art, or teach an art expressive class to help yourself heal. My mother and brother both passed away from stomach cancer after a few weeks of each diagnosis. My brother passed away in 2018 at the age of 48 and my mother in 2023 at the age of 82.
Respect and collaboration can be surprisingly complicated and time-consuming. A case in point is the Jones Family mural in Marcellus, MI. A year ago I accepted a commission to redo the mural that depicted a family story, including “Chief Pokamon” wearing buckskin and holding a spear.
In 1989, Flo had co-founded the San Francisco-based Asian American Women Artist Association (AAWAA) after attending the February conference of WCA in San Francisco. At the end of the conference, she was invited by Moira Roth, Trefethen Professor of Art History at Mills College, to a meeting of prominent women artists-of-color who had attended the conference, including Jaune Quick-To-See-Smith and Gail Tremblay among others.
Priscilla Otani, an NCWCA (Northern California Women’s Caucus for Art) member in San Francisco, organized “I Do Believe,” a postcard exhibit to visually discuss this subject. Artists, and members of the civil society were invited to discuss their perspectives on all sides of the abortion debate. More than 320 cards have been received to date, from people all over the United States and from many countries.
Maureen Burns-Bowie, Director of the International Caucus’ UN Program (https://www.wcainternationalcaucus.org/) is pleased to share with Women’s Caucus for Art members a new online publication, “Beijing Journal” (https://www.beijingjournal.online/).
Cynthia Navaretta, a native New Yorker, was born Cynthia Greenberg on January 31, 1923, she was a graduate architect and mechanical engineer, a rarity in those days, but made a name for herself in what had been traditionally a male-dominated contemporary art world, beginning in the 1940s.
Please see the themes that we have selected for 2023–24. Download the PDF and submit your abstract on our contact page.
