From Concept to Conference

from Honoring Women's Rights: Echoing Visual Voices Together

Honoring Women’s Rights: Echoing Visual Voices Together ARTISTS

Honoring Women’s Rights conference grew from a simple idea to celebrate Women’s Caucus for Art (WCA) 40th anniversary. We reached out to all the Pacific-Region chapters and formed a four chapter alliance of Monterey Bay, Peninsula, Northern California and South Bay Area (SBA), the latter of which I am president. Darlene Boyd, SBAWCA’s e-bulletin chair joined me to form a two person striking committee. Our vision was modest we wanted to shed light on the complete history of the women’s movement, starting with Seneca Falls to present and mix in a generous amount of art activism.

We knew the National Steinbeck Center had beautiful art galleries and then realized Steinbeck’s mission was in alignment with WCA’s to champion the forgotten and disenfranchised, while affirming the strength of the human spirit we knew we found a simpatico group with whom to work. As we waded into the details of shaping a juried exhibition and conference (juror and speaker searches, contract negotiations, developing social media platforms, building project plan structures, and building a volunteer corps) the political climate was brewing up a strange and toxic brew that enticed 19 states to pass 162 restrictive female gender laws.

The loudest discourse was on February 23, 2012. Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown Law student, spoke at the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee meeting about lack of insurance coverage for women’s contraception. This crystalized a new women’s movement that had been simmering in every state. When national radio host, Rush Limbaugh called Sandra Fluke a slut and a prostitute, a nation-wide backlash erupted. Immediately, business women Karen Teegarden and Desiree Jordan were inspired to create the 4.28.12 Unite Against War on Women rallies in every state capital. I went to one, handed conference cards out and told of our conference to everyone I met.

I had to keep spreading the word and look for volunteers. I went to women’s equity fund raisers, younger activists’ meet-and-greets, and WCA chapter meetings in New York, Berkeley, Pacifica, Monterey, Palo Alto, and Michigan. I rallied our members to get involved. I shot PSA videos at Mid-Peninsula Media Center, posted them on YouTube, our website and FaceBook, and burned and distributed DVD copies to six cable access stations from Pacifica to Monterey. A film production company made a short crowd-funder film for us. A design company volunteered to redesign our website to be modern and sleek.

As all this was gelling, important women activists reached out to us. We now had a robust public face and solid structure to form around. Karen Teegarden and I connected through an Honoring Women's Rights website form and I met her in person while attending a WCA meeting in Michigan. I found our keynote speaker, Louise Bernikow, through a CUNY-TV cable access show and met her while at a NY WCA chapter meeting. Sandra Fluke and I have connected only through Twitter.

The Honoring Women's Rights conference on September 8, 2012 is forum on women's rights from many perspectives. It resulted from public outcry in search of answers to what happened. It is a search for a structure to work in together where women can to meet and discuss “What next?”

Susan Kraft Conference Director

A Word from the National WCA President

Welcome to the Women’s Caucus for Art exhibition, Honoring Women’s Rights: Echoing Visual Voices Together. This exhibition is an important companion to the Honoring Women’s Rights Conference, that brings together speakers, panelists, and artists to address a wide spectrum of women's rights issues: gender equity, immigration, human trafficking, environment, reproductive health, and young women’s issues. With the “war on women” on the political agenda, this exhibition could not be more timely than now, during this Presidential election year.

Three jurors collaboratively selected works of 94 artists, which cover women’s rights perspectives from personal experience, family history, politics, cultural patterns, current affairs, historic events and notable heroines. By the sheer number and variety of works represented, the exhibition will surely stimulate conversations among viewers, educate youth who visit the National Steinbeck Center, and evoke an appreciation for how far women have come, and how much further we have to go to protect and honor our rights.

Honoring Women's Rights: Echoing Visual Voices Together began with an idea to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Women’s Caucus for Art among local chapters. It grew into an ambitious exhibition and conference, strengthened by WCA volunteers from four California chapters. As the exhibition and conference grew in size, so did the participation from women all over the United States who wanted to lend their art and their voices to this event. This exhibition and conference exemplify WCA’s mission to create community through art, education and social activism.

I would like to thank the exhibitions committee, whose enthusiasm and work helped make this show possible: Karen Gutfreund, Salma Arastu and Trudi Chamoff Hauptman. I thank the jurors, Dr. Joyce Aiken, Patricia Rodriguez, and Dr. Ruth Weisberg, for their thoughtful selections under somewhat trying technological conditions. Thank you, Esmeralda Montenegro Owen of the National Steinbeck Center for providing the venue for our exhibition. And I wish to recognize Darlene Boyd and Susan Kraft, the key organizers of the conference, and the many participants from the Monterey Bay, Northern California, Peninsula and South Bay Area WCA chapters who brought their ideas, energy and time to make this exhibition and conference a memorable event.

The Women’s Caucus for Art was founded in 1972 in connection with the College Art Association (CAA). WCA is a national member organization unique in its multidisciplinary, multicultural membership of artists, art historians, students, educators, and museum professionals.

The mission of the Women’s Caucus for Art is to create community through art, education, and social activism. WCA is committed to recognizing the contribution of women in the arts; providing women with leadership opportunities and professional development; expanding networking and exhibition opportunities for women; supporting local, national and global art activism; and advocating for equity in the arts for all.

As an NGO (non-governmental organization) of the United Nations, the Women’s Caucus for Art actively supports the UN Millennium Goals. WCA utilizes art as the universal language to engage artists, NGOS, and civil society on a broad range of issues such as gender equity and environmental sustainability.

As a founding member of the Feminist Art Project, WCA is part of a collaborative national initiative celebrating the Feminist Art Movement and the aesthetic, intellectual and political impact of women on the visual arts, art history, and art practice, past and present.

Priscilla Otani WCA President August, 2012

From the Exhibition Director

Art can be a powerful, productive force, and is often instrumental in sparking change or critical thinking. The Women’s Caucus for Art is committed to supporting local, national, and global art activism. Art can produce a visceral response and can provoke, inspire, or disturb, and opens your eyes to worlds other than your own. While the artist may not consider themselves to be a revolutionary, their art can effect change by bringing issues and concerns to light. We need art that helps us to understand what is happening in our society, who we are, where we come from and where we’re going.

With our prospectus for Honoring Women’s Rights: Echoing Visual Voices Together, we asked for artwork that examines and explores the social, political and economic issues related to women's activism. Historically, women have played a central role in the struggle for Civil Rights, yet their voices and experiences are generally ignored. We believe the roles of women should be examined and interpreted. We proposed an exhibition as a means of visually interpreting the struggle for women’s rights. By promoting and striving for protection and actualization of women's rights, we are paving a path for a stronger and fuller civil and personal life, empowering ourselves and those who follow us. We join our visual voices together to create authentic recognition, validation and compassion for one another; we can review our collective history as women, take stock of our present positions, and envision our future, knowing what we want to improve.

Our jurors, Dr. Joyce Aiken, Dr. Ruth Weisberg and Patricia Rodriguez chose 94 artists with 108 works to be exhibited in these museum galleries in the National Steinbeck Center. We are honored to work with these artists and to showcase their work. We believe in the power of artists to create, connect, and change the world.

Thank you to Deborah Silguero-Stahl, Curator of Exhibitions & Collections and the staff at the Center for partnering with us to put on this exhibition and to Dr. Joyce Aiken, Dr. Ruth Weisberg and Patricia Rodriguez and Salma Arastu, juror liaison, for compiling an incredible body of work on this activist theme from 257 submissions. A huge thank you to Trudi Chamoff Hauptman, the co-director for this exhibition for her excellent logistical and planning assistance, and to Mollie Dezern, our Exhibitions Editor and Administrative Assistant who masterfully edited the catalog and artist database while working on her thesis in Art History. As always, thank you to Rozanne Hermelyn for the fabulous catalog cover design. And most of all, a heartfelt thanks to the South Bay Area, Peninsula, Northern California and Monterey Bay chapters of the WCA, our national Board and members of Women’s Caucus for Art for their ongoing work to create greater exposure for women in the arts and art as activism.

Karen Gutfreund Vice President and National Exhibitions Director Women’s Caucus for Art

About The Women’s Caucus for Art:

Our Mission

The mission of the Women’s Caucus for Art is to create community through art, education, and social activism.

We are committed to:

 recognizing the contributions of women in the arts

 providing women with leadership opportunities and professional development

 expanding networking and exhibition opportunities for women

 supporting local, national, and global art activism

 advocating for equity in the arts for all

For more information visit: www.nationalwca.org

P. O. Box 1498, Canal Street Station, New York, NY 10013-1498 info@nationalwca.org, Tel: 212.634.0007 www.facebook.com/groups/107511953206/ twitter.com/#!/artWCA

Juror’s Comments

It was a great pleasure for us to jury the 40th Anniversary Art Exhibition for the four Northern California Chapters of the WCA. The theme of ‘Honoring Women’s Rights’ seemed particularly appropriate given the mission of the WCA and the experience and beliefs of so many women. We were very impressed with the variety of ways that women artists addressed these concerns as well as the often courageous way that these compelling issues were incorporated. We believe that this exhibition will be truly thought provoking and inspiring for the public that comes to the exhibition willing to truly engage with the work.

For the exhibition we chose 104 works of art out of a pool of 360 submitted works. You may notice that in terms of our selection there is no dominant style and no one media has been privileged. Rather we tried to select the work for both its commitment to the concept of the exhibition and the quality of the work itself. Whatever the style or medium chosen we sought a level of concern for the visual expression of the ideas. We came away with great respect for the skills and engagement in the artistic process of this cohort of artists. Yes, there may be a few regional tendencies. For example it was interesting to note a certain confident brushwork among the painters which seems characteristic of the Bay Area. However the work spanned many genres from almost futuristic digital manipulations of imagery to work that emphasized handwork that is traditionally associated with women.

We truly hope you will enjoy the work selected as much as we benefitted from the process of making the selections.

Joyce Aiken

Patricia Rodriguez

Ruth Weisberg

About the Jurors

DR. JOYCE AIKEN

Professor Emerita of Art from California State University, Fresno. She taught Feminist Art from 1973 to 1992 when she retired from full-time teaching, but continues to teach for the University in their London Semester Program. She was the Director of the Fresno Arts Council from 2004 to 2008 and represents them as the Public Art Consultant for both the City and County of Fresno. Her current art is conceptual and centers on social issues.

DR. RUTH WEISBURG

Professor of Fine Arts and former Dean at the Roski School, University of Southern California; received the Foundation for Jewish Culture's 50th Anniversary Cultural Achievement Award in September 2011. She has been the recipient of the Art Leadership Award, National Council of Art Administrators and the Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009, Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, Hebrew Union College, 2001, College Art Association Distinguished Teaching of Art Award 1999, Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome 1992, 1994, 1995 and 2011. Weisburg has had over 80 solo and 185 group exhibitions, including a recent major exhibition at the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena and a retrospective at the Skirball Museum, Los Angeles as well as a solo exhibition at the Huntingotn in San Marion. She is featured in a Pacific Standard Time exhibition at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts entitled Ruth Weisberg: Now & Then, February through April 2012. Her is included in 60 major Museum collections including The Art Institute of Chicago, the Biblioteque Nationale of Paris, France, Instituto Nationale per la Grafica, Rome, Detroit Institute of Arts, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Norwegian National Museum, Oslo, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, National Gallery, Washington, DC, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Patricia Rodriguez

Co-founder of the ‘Mujeres Muralistas’ (women's mural group), 1970-79, she is one of the first Chicana artists to create a course on Chicano Art History and a reader for the Chicano Art History course at UC Berkeley in 1977. She also taught at The Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Espanola Community College in Espanola, New Mexico, and at Los Alamos Community College at Los Alamos, New Mexico from 1990 -96. Having just completed a ten-year career as gallery curator for Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts in San Francisco, Ms. Rodriguez continues to curate shows through the internet and locally. Her latest curatorial work is an exhibition for Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) titled, ‘Love and Loss’ at the Oakland Museum of California from October 12 December 11, 2011. Her exhibition artwork has been monotype prints, box constructions in the Bay Area, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Smithsonian, Washington DC, Mexican Fine Arts Museum, Chicago, IL, white Gallery, UCLA, Daniel Saxon Gallery, Los Angeles, and De Young Museum, San Francisco, The Triton Museum, Santa Clara, and many other community galleries and venues.

About the National Steinbeck Center

Mission: The National Steinbeck Center...building community, celebrating creativity inspired by the words of John Steinbeck.

The National Steinbeck Center is located in John Steinbeck’s hometown of Salinas, Calif., a scenic 17-mile drive from Monterey in the heart of Steinbeck Country. The Center offers three distinct visitor experiences in literature and history, agriculture and art, as well special events and educational programs.

In the John Steinbeck Exhibition Hall, literature jumps off the printed page and into your imagination. Discover Steinbeck’s world through interactive, multi- sensory exhibits for all ages, rare artifacts and seven themed theaters showcasing East of Eden, Cannery Row, Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath and much more.

Explore the stories of the Salinas Valley “from field to fork” in the Rabobank Agriculture Museum. Salinas has long been known as “the Salad Bowl of the World”, and this hands-on permanent exhibit celebrates the history, people and technology of the agricultural industry.

Enjoy changing art and cultural exhibits in the our multiple gallery spaces.

Rooted in the earth and the people of the Salinas Valley, Steinbeck achieved worldwide recognition for his keen observations and powerful descriptions of the human condition. He championed the forgotten and disenfranchised, while affirming the strength of the human spirit. His life was as rich and provocative as the Salinas Valley he immortalized in his writing. Steinbeck drew his inspiration from this land and became known throughout the world, receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.

The Center is a wonderful attraction for school groups and adult tours and a unique venue for special events. Funds raised through admissions, memberships, programs, museum store sales, events and donations help support the Center, which is a 501(3) non-profit institution.

Honoring Women's Rights Conference

September 8, 2012

National Steinbeck Center Salinas, California

A national summit in advance of the 2012 Presidential election and in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Women's Caucus for Art (WCA) will be held at the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, California on September 8, 2012.

Artists and activists from across the country will gather to consider a wide spectrum of concerns from immigration, human trafficking, environment, reproductive health, right to vote, to gender equity and girls in the media.

The day will be opened by Esmeralda Montenegro Owen, Curator of Marketing and Community Engagement at the National Steinbeck Center followed by welcoming remarks from the Women’s Caucus of Art by Priscilla Otani, National WCA President and Sandra Mueller, Pacific Region WCA Vice President as well as Monterey County Supervisor Jane Parker will speak.

Conference speakers and presenters come from the realms of politics, education, art, business and philanthropy. The full conference program will include:

OPENING ADDRESS delivered by Louise Bernikow, "The Shoulders We Stand On: Women as Agents of Change.”

MORNING PRESENTATIONS by Jane Schonberger on "Moving Female Athletes Off The Sidelines,” Emilia Fuentes Grant on “Bad Romance: Women’s Suffrage,” Flo Oy Wong on "My Mother: My Father's Sister, An Illegal Immigrant,” Pia Guerrero on “Adios Barbie,” Ani Zonneveld on “I’m sexier than Britney Spears;” and Kim Abeles on "Men and Water.”

ACTIVISM PANEL moderated by Kim Abeles with Melanie Cervantes, Karen Teegarden, Geri Montano and Martha Richards as panelists.

EDUCATION & CURRENT EVENTS panel moderated by Priscilla Otani with Enid Baxter Blader, Linda Turner Bynoe, Sandra Fluke, Emilia Fuentes Grant and Jane Schonberger.

AFTERNOON PRESENTATIONS by Malissa Feruzzi Shriver on “California Artists & Arts Education,” Martha Richards on “SWAN Day: An International Holiday that Celebrates Women Artists and Sandra Fluke on “Issues Facing Students Today.”

MUSICAL PLAY entitled "We Did it For You” by Dr. Thea Iberall

CONCLUDING PRESENTATIONS by Judy Baca on "Feminist Representation and the Public Art of Judy Baca” and Karen Teegarden on "Unite Women."

The day will conclude with an evening reception at the National Steinbeck Center for the related exhibition Honoring Women’s Rights: Echoing Visual Voices Together that is documented in this catalogue and features the artwork of 94 women artist-activists from across the country.

SPEAKER BIOS:

KIM ABELES is an artist who crosses disciplines and media to explore and map the urban environment and chronicle broad social issues often collaborating with the very groups impacted by such issues. Her recent "Pearls of Wisdom: End the Violence" at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles was viewed by over a quarter million visitors. Her work is in many collections including the Museum of Contemporary Art; United States Information Agency; Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Yucun Art Museum, Suzhou, China. Abeles has received grants from the Andy Warhol and Peter Norton Foundations and fellowships from the J. Paul Getty Trust Fund, Pollack-Krasner Foundation, and the California Arts Council. She is a member of the Southern California WCA chapter.

JUDY BACA is a world-renowned painter and muralist, community arts pioneer, scholar and educator. She founded the first City of Los Angeles Mural Program in 1974, which evolved into a community arts organization known as the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) which was has been creating sites of public memory since 1976. Baca continues to serve as its artistic director and focuses her creative energy in the UCLA@SPARC Cesar Chavez Digital Mural Lab, employing digital technology to co-create collaborative mural designs. She has taught in the UC system for over 30 years and has been on faculty in the UCLA Chicana/o Studies Department since 1996. She received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women's Caucus for Art in 1999.

LOUISE BERNIKOW is a nationally known feminist activist, scholar and writer. She has published nine books, including The World Split Open and Among Women, both standard texts in Women's Studies. She is a founder of the Columbia Seminar on Women and Society and the Women's Biography group at the CUNY Graduate Center and was an original contributor to MS. magazine. Her lectures on radical American women's history "The Shoulders We Stand On: Women as Agents of Change" have been enjoyed on campuses, at conferences, and in communities around the country. She also wrote The American Women's Almanac, an "irreverent" illustrated American women's history. Bernikow is a Fulbright Fellow with degrees from Barnard College and Columbia University. She is currently re-visiting the early 20th century fight for women's suffrage,

ENID BAXTER BLADER is an artist, filmmaker and musician. She co-edited the project/book/website entitled Water, CA that is currently touring as a museum exhibition. Her works have been shown at the Smithsonian, the Getty Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles) as well as the Kunsthalle Vienna and The Arnolfini (London). She has received grants from the California Council of the Humanities, Durfee Foundation and Kodak. She founded the Monterey Film Society. Her BFA is from The Cooper Union and her MFA is from Claremont Graduate University. She was a fellow at Yale and is now an Associate Professor of Experimental Film at Cal State University Monterey Bay.

LINDA TURNER BYNOE ED.D is a university professor and author. She has taught at CSU Monterey Bay for over 12 years. Her research and teaching has been in the areas of Feminist and Peace Studies. She received the California Faculty Association's 2006 Mario Savio Equal Rights Award in recognition of her leadership in the promotion of equal rights throughout California State Universities. Bynoe received her Ed. D. in International Multicultural Education from the University of San Francisco.

MELANIE CERVANTES is a Xicana activist-artist. She co-founded Dignidad Rebelde, a collaborative graphic arts project that translates stories of struggle and resistance into artwork that can be put back into the hands of the communities who inspired it. Her work has been shown at Galería de la Raza (San Francisco); Woman Made Gallery and National Museum of Mexican Art (Chicago); Mexic-Arte and Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center (Austin); and Crewest (Los Angeles). Her work is in the collections of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, the Green Library at Stanford, and the Hispanic Research Center at Arizona State. She works as a Program Officer at the Akonadi Foundation and holds a BA in Ethnic Studies from UC, Berkeley.

SANDRA KAY FLUKE is an attorney and women's rights activist who rose to national attention when her 2012 testimony before Democratic members of the House of Representatives drew inflammatory comments from Rush Limbaugh. Fluke graduated from Cornell University in 2003 and worked for Sanctuary for Families, aiding victims of domestic violence and human trafficking. She graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in 2012 where she served as president of Georgetown Law Students for Reproductive Justice.

EMELIA FUENTES GRANT is a freelance writer who lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. She writes educational content for Soomo Publishing and is the screenwriter and lyricist behind "Too Late to Apologize: A Declaration" (2009) and "Bad Romance: Women's Suffrage" (2012). The video blends Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" (2009) with the radical activism of Alice Paul and the National Woman's Party in the fight for the 19th Amendment and women's suffrage.

PIA GUERRERO is a media literacy expert, social critic, writer and non-profit executive. She has over 20 years of nonprofit leadership at Just Think, East Bay Center for the Performing Arts and GirlSource. She is currently Executive Director at SheHeroes where they research and tell inspiring stories of female role models via free video hero stories for tweens. She is also the founder and editor of AdiosBarbie.com, the first multicultural body image site and a board member of Girls Figure In. a project of the San Francisco NOW educational fund. She co-authored Work of the Mind: Media Studies Curricula. Guerrero is a graduate of the Iowa State University Greenlee School of Journalism and splits her time between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

THEA IBERALL, Ph.D is a performance poet, playwright and scientist. She is widely published in anthologies and her volume, The Sanctuary of Artemis: A Collection of Contextual Poems was published by Tebot Bach. Iberall’s plays include We Did It For You and her Primed for Love. She is the editor of The Hummingbird Review and has a Ph.D. in neuroscience from University of Massachusetts and a Master’s degree in writing from University of Southern California where she works as a research professor in the USC School of Cinema-Television.

GERI MONTANO is a multiracial contemporary artist. She emphasizes her Native American heritage and creates provocative collage drawings, juxtaposing subversive and aesthetic imagery. Her current body of work, “Traded Moons,” interprets aspects of sex trafficking with grants from the San Francisco Arts Commission helping to fund this project. "Traded Moons" installation was recently exhibited at Galeria de la Raza. She has also shown at Diego Riviera, Workspace Ltd., SOMArts Cultural Center and MACLA. She received her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1997.

PRISCILLA OTANI is an artist, curator, and arts leader. Social issues, particularly those that affect youth, class and women are recurring themes in her mixed-media artwork and cultural leadership. Her exhibition projects include Effects of War, Women on War, Cutting Edge Books and Women Artists on Immigration. She has curated s global postcard exhibits, presented a workshop at the 2009 Mexican City United Nations conference and also had a prior career as an international executive at The Gap. Otani is co-founder of Arc Studios & Gallery in San Francisco, President of the National Women's Caucus for Art and a member of the Northern California WCA chapter. She is a graduate of Mills College with a Masters in Japanese Literature from Columbia University.

MARTHA RICHARDS is a lecturer, writer, attorney and arts leader. She is the founder and Executive Director of

WomenArts and previously served as Executive Director of Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts and as Managing Director of StageWest. She writes and lectures frequently on arts and cultural policy issues. In April 2009 she was inducted into the BayPath College 21st Century Women Business Leaders Hall of Fame for her work in philanthropy. Richards has a B.A. in Economics from UC Berkeley and a J.D. from Hastings College of Law. She is a member of the California bar and a founding director of California Lawyers for the Arts.

JANE SCHONBERGER is a writer, creative executive and product development consultant with a background in traditional and digital media. She co-founded the first blog network devoted to female athletes as well as a series of popular young adult novels about girls who play sports. She is Sports Editor at BlogHer, Inc., CoFounder/Editor-in-Chief at Women Talk Sports LL and Managing Partner at Pretty Tough, Inc., a national lifestyle brand resource for female athletes.

MALISSA FERUZZI SHRIVER is a fine artist, gallery owner and Chair of the California Arts Council. She serves on the boards of the National Assembly of State Art Agencies, the California Institute of the Arts, and the Western States Arts Federation. She is a policy board member for the California Alliance for Arts Education and former board member of the California Music Project, a nonprofit organization created to support music education in K-12 schools. She is a graduate of UCLA in Women’s Studies and Psychology and co-founder of Feruzzi Fine Art that specializes in recreations of masters paintings.

KAREN TEEGARDEN founded UniteWomen.org on February 19, 2012 from her home in Birmingham Michigan as a grass roots and multi-generational organization to address the war on women. She is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and President of Karen Teegarden and Associates a marketing and advertising sales firm. Her daughter was raised to believe in her core that she was created equal.

FLO OY WONG is a contemporary installation artist, painter and activist. She is a co-founder of the Asian American Women Artists Association and a former board member of the National Women's Caucus for Art. Oy Wong's art residencies include Art Omi in New York, Headlands Center for the Arts, and Djerassi. She has shown her art nationally and internationally and has received two National Endowment for the Arts grants to support her work at the intersection of art and history. In 1995, Oy Wong received a mid-career President's Award from the Women's Caucus for Art.

ANI ZONNEVELD is a songwriter, producer, and activist. She is co-founder and president of Muslims for Progressive Values, co-chief editor of Progressive Muslim Identities-Personal Stories and a frequent speaker on inclusive diversity. After 9/11, she wrote and produced Ummah Wake-Up and now writes a column of the same title for AsianMedia.com. Zonneveld received a Grammy certification for her contribution to “Keep It Simple.” She was named a Muslim Leader of Tomorrow by the American Society for Muslim Advancement.

HONORING WOMEN’S RIGHTS CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS

The conference was organized and presented by the members and directors of the four Northern California chapters of the Women’s Caucus for Art South Bay WCA, Northern California WCA, Peninsula WCA and Monterey Bay WCA in collaboration with the National Steinbeck Center, Salinas, CA. Darlene Boyd served as Conference Chair and Susan Kraft served as Project Manager and Public Relations Chair. Other chairs included:

Jill Andre, Graphics

Salma Arastu, Exhibition Juror Coordinator

Brianda Alvarez, College Outreach & Registration

Jennifer Colby, Ph.D., Women's Art History Timeline

Dead Set Films, Filmmaker

Mollie Dezern, Exhibition Editor and Administrative Assistant

Ellen Lee, Public Relations and Publications

Karen Gutfreund, Exhibition Consultant

Kelly Hammargren, Participant Advocate

Trudi Chamoff Hauptman, Art Logistics

Sue Ann Hillyer, Art 4 Girls Sake

Judy Johnson-Williams, Conference Give-Aways

Cathy Keys, Film Chair

Marianna Lynn Moles, Hotel & Registration

Sandra Mueller, Engagement Consultant

Priscilla Otani, Executive Advisor

Patty Page, Marketing & Music

Jane Peterman, Treasurer

Sally Rayn, Artist & Speaker Outreach

Siren Song Creations, Website & Program Design

Lynne Todaro, Artist Outreach

Nance Wheeler, Camera & Media Booth

Marian Yap. Event Day Coordinator

Additional information can be found online about the conference and the sponsoring organizations at honoringwomensrights.org, nationalwca.org and steinbeck.org.

Editor’s Note: Since the writing and publishing of this catalogue precedes the actual conference, there may be slight changes in the final program.

The Ragdoll Project is an ongoing project by the Philadelphia Chapter of the Women's Caucus for Art that educates the public on human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation, and supports survivors and at risk women and children. The project began in the spring of 2011, to engage artists and the public in a creative project that would bring more people into the discussion about trafficking and offer an opportunity to contribute to the lives of those affected by this crime. After reading about the lives of trafficked adults and children, we decided that the ragdoll was a fitting symbol for the way victims are treated. A pile of handmade ragdolls was created by artists and community members to symbolize the numbers of human beings impacted by trafficking.

The dolls have been presented along with educational information at various public venues in Philadelphia, and will travel to cities across the United States. The Philadelphia Women’s Caucus for Art has hosted protests, ragdoll making workshops, movie nights, a fundraising concert, educational sessions on human trafficking, and an exhibition titled Stop Slavery Now in March of 2012 at F&N Gallery in Philadelphia. Many dolls have been auctioned off at events and the proceeds have gone directly to Dawn’s Place, a shelter that houses survivors of sex trafficking in Philadelphia. We hope the project will reach artists and the public throughout the U.S. and we encourage other chapters of the Caucus to host doll-making events and doll auctions to raise funds for survivors in their cities.

There are currently an estimated 27 million people globally that are enslaved. Human trafficking is the second largest organized crime in the world, generating approximately $32 billion a year. The majority of those involved are children, teens, and adults who were trafficked into prostitution before the age of 18. Traffickers and pimps in the US prey on at risk youth and advertise in local papers and on the internet. In most states, the laws that would prosecute pimps, johns, and traffickers are outdated and ineffective or nonexistent. Laws that will end the demand, prosecute the criminals, and protect victims will only be put into place when there is enough public support to do so. Please visit www.theragdollproject.org to learn more about the issue and to contribute a doll to this worthy cause.