Martha Richards
“We dream about what will happen as more and more women artists gain the resources they need to express their creativity fully. We are convinced that they will change the world.”
Martha Richards, WomenArts
Founder & Executive Director
WomenArts is dedicated to increasing the visibility of women artists in all art forms. We share news about trailblazing women artists and gender parity activists all year long through the WomenArts Blog and our Facebook page.
During March and April 2019, we will be collaborating with the Statera Foundation to put the spotlight on women artists through Support Women Artists Now Day/SWAN Day, an annual international holiday celebrating women’s creativity in all its forms. We believe in the power of women artists to create, connect, and change the world.
WomenArts coordinated Support Women Artists Now Day from its creation in 2008 until 2018. In June 2018, WomenArts chose the Statera Foundation to lead SWAN Day 2019. Please note that the SWAN Calendar and other information about SWAN Day has moved from the WomenArts website to the SWAN Day section of the Statera Foundation website.
Background
WomenArts (incorporated as The Fund for Women Artists) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) arts service organization dedicated to helping women artists get the resources they need to do their creative work. Created in 1994 by Martha Richards, the organization raised over $4 million and created a website that has provided free networking, fundraising and advocacy services to over 500,000 visitors a year for over twenty years.
WomenArts was known as The Fund for Women Artists and was based in Northampton, Massachusetts from 1994 to 2007. It moved to San Francisco, California in August 2007. The archives of its early grant proposals and other source materials about women artists are included in the Sophia Smith Collection of Women’s History Manuscripts at the Smith College Library.(http://www.smith.edu/libraries/libs/ssc/)