A generous individual has agreed to match the next $5,000 that WomenArts receives in new gifts this month. Can you spare $5, $10, $25, or more to help us make the challenge match?
The funds will be used to make Support Women Artists Now Day/SWAN Day bigger and better this year. Whatever you give will be doubled by the challenge grant if you act now!Gifts through the WomenArts Cause page on Facebook will also count! If you are active on Facebook, think about making a Holiday Wish for WomenArts this year!
WOMENARTS IS ON THE MOVE!
A Special Note from Executive Director Martha Richards
Martha Richards
WomenArts has had an incredible year! There is so much good news, it is hard to know where to start, but two things are clear – there is a growing movement of activist women artists, and with the help of our friends WomenArts is becoming one of its leaders.
I have been travelling around the country to meet with our constituents, especially the women who are organizing the most ambitious celebrations for Support Women Artists Now Day/SWAN Day. What an impressive group!
I have met women like Catherine Aselford, who presented 29 events in 5 venues for SWAN Day DC; Deborah Magdalena, who worked with seven Latina spoken word and film artists to create a 3-day festival for SWAN Day Miami; Jennifer Hill who organizes an annual SWAN Day music festival in Hartford; Debra J’Anthony, who is building a new women’s theatre initiative at Northampton’s Academy of Music; and SWAN Day Co-founder Jan Lisa Huttner, who is organizing celebrations at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago around their productions of Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage and Tanya Saracho’s El Nogalar. These are just a few of the people who have told us they are organizing SWAN events for 2011!
When we started SWAN Day, we hoped it would generate new support systems for women artists, and it’s working! We have now had over 500 SWAN Day events in 14 countries – new leaders are emerging, and once artists have the experience of working together on SWAN Day events, they start sharing other resources and information. SWAN Day empowers all of us because we discover we are not alone – we are part of a world-wide community of women artists.
I am thrilled to report that WomenArts will be adding a new dimension to our movement-building efforts in 2011 thanks to a generous grant from the Nathan Cummings Foundation. The goal of this grant is to build more partnerships between women artists and women’s organizations that are working on the same social issues.
We will be working to create “win-win” situations where artists will help women’s groups find new ways to express their social and economic visions, and women’s groups will help artists reach new and larger audiences. I will be working with cultural policy expert Arlene Goldbard to do research, organize gatherings, and create model partnerships in New York and San Francisco. Hopefully we can replicate the models in other cities in future years.
We are on an amazing journey, and your participation really makes a difference. This is an especially good time to make a gift since whatever you give will be doubled by our $5,000 challenge grant.
You can make a gift by clicking on any Donate button on our website or by clicking here>>
You can also donate through the WomenArts Cause page on Facebook. If you are active on Facebook, please think about creating a Holiday Wish for the WomenArts Cause this year.
Thanks so much for the great work that all of you do. We are looking forward to another wonderful year of advocating for women artists!
Best Wishes,
Martha Richards, Executive Director, WomenArts
SPECIAL THANKS
WomenArts is supported by generous grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the Meyer Levy Charitable Foundation, the Peace Development Fund, East Bay Community Foundation, and by gifts of time, energy and money from artists and arts supporters around the world.