Vermont SWAN Day Features Photos of Feminist Leaders

Photo of Bella Abzug by Diana Mara Henry

This is one of Diana Mara Henry’s photos of New York
Congresswoman Bella Abzug
© 1972 Diana Mara Henry

Women members of the Memphremagog Artists Collaborative will be celebrating SWAN Day this Saturday, April 6 by demonstrating and discussing their work from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. at the MAC Center for the Arts, 158 Main Street in Newport, Vermont. The celebration will also include a month-long exhibit of historic photos of leading feminists.

This year’s SWAN artists will be:  Mary Brenner, watercolor artist; Ladonna Dunn, Gemstone Jeweler; Diana Mara Henry, Photographer, Pat Lipinski, watercolor artist; Bonnie Nash, felted wool paintings and figures; MaryLiz Riddle, bookmaker; Ellie Roberts, Sterling Jeweler; Andrea Strobach, weaver; Ann Lisner, Painter; and Linda Schneck, Harpist.

In addition to the demonstrations, Diana Mara Henry’s “Women on the Move” photos will be on display at the MAC Center through April 27th. As a professional photographer, Diana Mara Henry covered many of the major political events of the 1970s, including the 1972 and 1976 National Democratic Conventions and presidential campaigns, as well as the campaigns of New York Congresswomen Bella Abzug and Liz Holtzman. As an official photographer for the National Women’s Conference, a gathering of 20,000 women activists in Houston, Texas in 1977, Henry had unlimited access to many of the feminist leaders who made history in the 1970s.

Her iconic images of these women have appeared in government documents, magazines, books such as The Perfect Portfolio, Newsweek’s Pictures of the Year 1977, and in Wendy Wasserstein’s 1989 Pulitzer and Tony award-winning play, The Heidi Chronicles. They have been exhibited in many locations including in a one-woman show at the Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, NY.

The Women on the Move exhibit at the MAC Center will be accompanied by a Women on the Move book with 221 of Diana Mara Henry’s unique photographs of the women’s movement, political conventions, the art and glamour scene of the go-go years in New York City, and women from all walks of life across the US and around the world.

Diana Mara Henry will be present for SWAN Day at the MAC Center this Saturday to discuss her work and sign copies of her book.

For more information about the SWAN event, please visit the MAC Art Center website.
For more information about Diana Mara Henry, please visit her website.