When you visit a new city for the first time, you might get a feel for its culture by visiting an art museum.
After all, art offers a glimpse into what communities are like, so in many ways, it sets the agenda for how cultures are perceived.
And in America, cultures are largely determined by men.
In fact, reports show that
70 percent of art in commercial art museums across the country is made by men, and when it comes to major permanent collections, that figure rises to 95-97 percent.
To help level the playing field, two unique organizations have emerged in Fort Wayne, giving female artisans a voice to influence local culture and tools to turn their creativity into full-time careers.
Giving women a voice
After working at Arts United for about a year and a half, Olivia Horton saw a need.
She saw women, in particular, struggling to connect within the regional arts community and manage their projects on top of full-time careers or parenthood.
“Art can be a very isolating profession, similar to being a female business owner,” Horton says.
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Olivia Horton is a professional piano teacher.
As a professional pianist teaching lessons herself, she, too, was feeling the crunch on her time and energy, so she reached out to fellow artist Lissa Brown about a way to build a support community for Fort Wayne's female artists.
The creator of
Tiny Clementine Art, Brown makes work designed to speak to women, often featuring female figures and messages.
“Art is an action that can bring about social change and reform,” Brown writes in her artist statement. “There are many big picture agendas that need to be addressed in the Women's Movement, and that takes an army of humans that are ready and willing to use their voice and skill-sets to make a difference.”
So together, the Horton and Brown created a cross-media artists group designed to help local women make a difference by gathering to learn, collaborate, and get inspired.
They call it
the Fort Wayne Women's Art Coalition (FWWAC), and it meets on the third Thursdays of each month at various locations.
The group is open to female artists of all types—performers, writers, and visual artists—who share a common mission.
“We’re trying to give women a voice, and we feel that art is a powerful way to do that,” Horton says.
What women want
Since
its first meeting in November, the FWWAC has had broad appeal.
While the group is only open to women ages 21 and older, Horton says many men have reached out to express their support for it, and she's seen a wide range of ages attending the meetings, from 21-year-olds to 75-year-olds.
She and Brown are pleased with the diversity, and while they have personal goals for the group, they also want to let the women in it decide what it will be about.
Because, a lot of times, Horton says, women have things decided for them.
“People like to tell us what we want without asking what we need,” Horton says. “I think this is an opportunity for women to decide what benefits them as a community.”
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Members of FWWAC gather at Wunderkammer Company Art Center in Fort Wayne.
At the first callout meeting in November, about 40 women took a survey to decide what the group should focus on.
Horton says some surprising needs emerged from that survey, one of which was a directory of local women in the arts.
Women want to know who to call when they need local resources or want to initiate collaborations or even want to attend events like gallery openings together, Horton says.
So she and Brown are working on ways to create a directory for the group.
In the meantime, they’re having one women each month share her artists journey, successes, and support needs by giving what they call an “Art Share” presentation.
“It’s a good opportunity to learn about an art form you’re not familiar with,” Horton says.
Another need that has emerged from the study is workshops.
Horton says these workshops will range from art creation, like watercolor sessions, to business management sessions, like how to file your taxes.
As artists themselves, she and Brown understand the challenges their fellow women are facing, and they hope the FWWAC will give artists that boost they need to normalize women in Fort Wayne’s professional art scene.
“We’re hoping this group will give women an opportunity to grab some commissions and have the tools to move forward,” Horton says.
One of the most critical tools for local artists is access platforms and training that helps them turn talents into full-time careers.
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Lorelei VerLee offers business training to local women in downtown Fort Wayne.
Creating sustainable businesses
Next to J.K. O’Donnell’s in downtown Fort Wayne, Creative Women of the World (CWOW) is a shop that sells goods made by women in northeast Indiana and more than 50 countries around the world.
But something you might not know about the shop is that retail is only part of its purpose.
It’s founder, Lorelei VerLee, actually travels the world to offer business training in 10 countries from Guatemala to the Philippines, where she helps women improve their lives and communities by starting sustainable, creative companies.
On a local level, VerLee says she wants to help northeast Indiana’s artisans be self-sustaining, too.
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Vanessa Sheckler, center, and Lorelei VerLee, to her right, with their team at Creative Women of the World.
This spring, she's offering local business training classes for men and women alike at at the Lehman Family YMCA at 5680 YMCA Park Dr. Her courses will be from March 29-April 14 on Thursday nights and Saturday mornings. The exact times are to be determined and announced
on CWOW's website.
“It’s training for anybody who has a business or wants to grow a business,” VerLee says.
While she has done crafting workshops with artisans overseas since 2007, she started adding business training to her work in 2012.
She was initially using a curriculum created by another organization, but she quickly realized that she needed to develop her own training to fit the needs of her female artisans.
“The first curriculum I used was good, but it was good for men,” she says. “I wanted something created for women.”
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Lorelei VerLee, right, teaches business training to women in the Kauma slums in Lilongwe, Malawi.
This spring, Creative Women of the World will be showcasing its artisans’ work in a fashion show fundraiser.
The event,
Empower Her World, on April 26th, will feature styles collected from around the globe, focusing on Africa, with a special guest speaker from Kenya.
VerLee says in a world where women are more likely to be disadvantaged, it’s the power of creativity that gives them hope.
“As artists and small business owners ourselves, we know the joy and powerful internal shifts that come from taking a skill and creatively matching it to a market need,” VerLee says. “We have been privileged to watch the power of creativity work for women from 10 countries because those women dared to look at what ‘could be.’”
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The upstairs gallery of CWOW sells work by local artisans.
NOTE: The author, Kara Hackett, is a board member for Creative Women of the World.