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October is Chicago Artist’s month, which is a city wide initiative to “discover the work of hundreds of artists through performances, exhibitions, open studios, tours and neighborhood art walks”1. I began to think about Chicago and its art scene. After attending an event in Uptown, there were many people from diverse backgrounds, but I still did not see many women of color in the space. Thinking back to many of the art events I have attended around Chicago, segregation seems to still be a part of the framework. This segregation does not seem to be based on hatred, but more on which neighborhood you go to.
Women of color (WOC) that are curators, jurors, and artists often work in communities with mostly other people of color. Even if a WOC artist is in a space that does or does not have other people of color in it, there is another separation: the ability to discuss both gender and race in their work. There are shows that discuss both aspects of this identity, but it is often not outside of the neighborhoods in which these artists are based. Through this paper I want to know: do female artist of color working in Chicago have similar experiences? How does identifying as a woman and a person of color artist overlap in the creative process?
Chicago and the Neighborhood Effect
Some people never leave their neighborhood while others love to explore the city; but understanding neighborhoods is more than just knowing about people’s feelings towards them. Robert J. Sampson discusses this in his book Great American City: Chicago and the Enduring Neighborhood Effect, “Neighborhoods are not merely settings in which individuals act out the dramas produced by autonomous and preset scripts, or empty vessels determined by ‘bigger’ external forces, but are important determinants of the quantity and quality of human behavior in their own right”( pg 22).2 Reading this quote I thought about WOC artists in Chicago and the places I saw their work and presence. Though there are organizations like The African American Arts Alliance of Chicago, Woman Made Gallery, and others across the city there is still a feeling of individual autonomy for singular WOC artists. I interviewed artist and sculptor Debra Hand and asked : Do you feel accepted as a woman of color and a practicing artist in Chicago? Debra answered:
“ No. Sometimes. It is a constant struggle to try to penetrate which have not been set up to include African American artists. It’s not so much that these systems are trying to exclude me, as it is that they were never built to include me in the first place.”
Hand, Debra. Personal interview 1 Oct. 2013.
Art and its history is one of segregation of race, gender, and class. Even though there are many WOC in art institutions, and individual WOC artists, there is still a fight against this larger system of discrimination in art.
Being a Chicago native when I visited art galleries on the upper South Side, areas like 35th, I saw artists of color, but only further North in the city. I assumed the further North I went the better my chances were to meet other artists.
“ I feel very conflicted about the city as a native and I didn’t really feel that [Chicago] was the art capital so I went to New York City to be in what I thought was the art world… As the economic turn around happens more people flock to Chicago because it’s more affordable.”
Davis Fegan, Angela. Personal Interview. 20 Sept, 2013.
Angela is originally from the Hyde Park area, left for New York, came back and is now a graduate student at Columbia. As we continued the interview, I wanted to know more about more about her experience in Chicago as a WOC and a practicing artist.Angela stated “I fight to carve out space for myself all the time. I rarely feel “accepted”. I struggle to be visible as a person of color and as a queer woman.”
Hearing Angela’s quote I thought about Great American City: Chicago and the Enduring Neighborhood Effect, and the chapter that discusses interneighborhood migration. In this chapter Sampson describes that interneigborhood migration is based on “ (1) spatial proximity, (2) differences in race and income composition, and (3) dissimilarity of the social and cultural climate” ( pg 310). Angela and many other artists that live in areas like the lower South Side, the West Side, or more disadvantaged areas of Chicago, seek to leave and begin a new artistic life; instead of trying to cultivate their own neighborhoods.
If an artist does choose to work an economically disadvantaged neighborhood, the artist, the organizations or populations they are working with may not have the chance to branch out and have access to funding, materials, or space to work on creative projects. Staying in a disadvantaged area may mean decreased spatial proximity to other artists or art organizations outside of that neighborhood, a lack of racial and income diversity of those working with or within in the organization and decreased ability to fund their own artistic projects.
As I continued my interviews, there was a feeling that WOC artist were outsiders in pre-established artistic spaces like the Museum of Contemporary Art or the Art Institute of Chicago.
“ I was in a panel at the Art Institute a couple years ago about the invisible artist, and that was supposed to be artists of color. Well I had a Chicago Reader that had an article about an artist named Al Tyler who was exhibiting at Chicago State University, so I didn’t consider that invisible… I knew I was exhibiting in many places, and I knew other artists were exhibiting in many places so we weren’t invisible but the perception when you go to major institutions was that there are some artists [women and people of color] were still considered invisible.”
Owens, Joyce. Interview by Waubonsee Community College. 12 Sept. 2012. 3
Joyce who has worked on Chicago’s far South Side at Chicago State University, with the
Art Institute, and with Woman Made Gallery does not necessarily work solely on the
South Side of Chicago, but still deals with title of the “invisible artist” that women and
people of color artists often are placed with.
Intersectionality
Intersectionality is described as “a concept often used in critical theories to describe the ways in which oppressive institutions ( racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, etc.) are interconnected and cannot be examined separately from one another.”4 One of the most important questions I asked in my interviews was about the intersection of race and gender for WOC artists and their work. All parts of identity influence an artists work, and how those personal identities interact add another layer to the meaning and direction of an artists work. For WOC artists it can become a balancing act and a choice between which identities they want to discuss, race or gender. This is not to say that many WOC artists do not discuss both race and gender, but often dealing with reactions to works discussing both identities can be a difficult process. I asked both Debra and Angela the question: How does identifying as a woman and a person of color artist overlap in the creative process? Debra responded, “I feel I can discuss them equally, but to discuss either immediately limits an artist’s audience. There are people who immediately reject themed-based work that deals with either issue.” Angela responded, “I do not feel like I can equally discuss race and gender in life, but I don’t place them at odds with each other in my work. I talk about them in an intersectional way in my work, so I rarely make a choice between the two in my approach. It is more often that the viewer makes a choice between these two topics when viewing my work.” In both answers the struggle doesn’t seem to be the action of discussing both race and gender in their work, but often a viewers negative reactions to it.
To begin to talk about race and gender within work lends to the idea that you may alienate some viewers who don’t identify as a woman or a person of color, or both. The anger that some WOC artists feel is grounded in the fact that they are not invisible artists. White male artist have the freedom to choose whether or not to discuss their race or gender in their work, and their work may not be negatively affected by that choice. For WOC artists, that is not often a choice once they decide to discuss race and gender in their work. Angela describes how she counteracts this with her work.
“I get into spaces based on my work and try to keep as much identifying information about myself out of it. I am not generally shown in women specific galleries or galleries specializing in artists of color either.”
Davis Fegan, Angela. Personal Interview. 20 Sept, 2013.
With this statement there is not rejection of her identity, but to be able to have her work be the focus, she opts to not disclose her gender or race.
Conclusion
In conclusion after interviewing Debra, Joyce, and Angela, I saw and underlying message from each woman. Whether or not they chose to disclose their race and gender and discuss it in their work, there is still an underlying feeling of being excluded from the art scene in Chicago because of their personal identities. So what can be done to combat these feelings of exclusion? What can be done specifically here in Chicago? To answer this question I looked at many of the current projects the women I interviewed. Joyce is part of the group called Sapphire and Crystals, “collective of professional African American women artists in Chicago.”5
This past November Sapphire and Crystals had a show at Woman Made Gallery called “State of Race” which included work about “addressing various themes such as race and gender, limited palettes, and honoring their pasts”4. Though the show was about the experience of WOC artists and race, there was active conversation about race with non-WOC artists. Conversation like this provides an open forum to talk about similarities and differences in work, without the feeling of being the “invisible artist” in that space. Sapphire and Crystals has also worked with South Side Community Art Center, which is further south in the city than Woman Made. By working and exhibiting in various areas around Chicago, there is interaction within differing communities and a breaking down of segregation in Chicago’s art scene.
Angela is also working on current projects that deal with sexuality and feminist movements.
“Currently I am working on a series of handset wood type letter press broadsides. They will be printed under the name “lavender menace” which is a reference to the fight within the first wave of the feminist movement to include lesbians…The slogans I am coming up with mainly talk about how legal marriage is not the primary concern for most queers in their fight for liberation, survival or equal rights, but also I have a lot of feminist and anti racist slogans too.”
Davis Fegan, Angela. Personal Interview. 20 Sept, 2013.
Talking about the intersection of gender, race, and sexuality is the beginning of the process of seeing the multidimensionality of what it means to be a woman. This can also be used in the conversation of WOC artists. As Angela described marriage is not the only concern in the liberation of queer people, just as race or gender can’t be the only main concern when understanding the visibility of WOC artists.
We have to discuss race, gender, class, sexuality and all the aspects of personal identities that influence not only WOC artists, but all artists. When we look at issues like class in Chicago, we can see places like the Art Institute of Chicago and The Museum of Contemporary Art(MCA), are usually operated by privileged white males. Though there is an increase of women and WOC in institutions like this, the opinion is that it is still a place for artists and individuals with class privilege. In Chicago this means that people who are from economically disadvantaged areas may not have access to these spaces, and do not feel welcome in spaces like the Art Institute or MCA in the first place. When we begin to understand the impact of the intersection of identity for an artist, we can begin to see what improvements need to be made. Along with understanding identities, we must also understand identities are not solely what make up an artist. Debra Hand, who is currently sculpting a statue of Paul Laurence Dunbar for Dunbar park on the 31st in Chicago, gave me this advice when I asked her: If you had to give advice to an artist, what would you say?
“ Please don’t lose your creative self by trying to live p to someone else’s ideals of what art its. Create from your heart and soul. Your art is the one thing that is truly your own and only you can decide what is relevant for you to express.”
Hand, Debra. Personal interview 1 Oct. 2013.
Originally my paper was simply a chance to interview other WOC artists and know their stories. It soon became something more. For most of my life, I assumed that WOC artists were fighting to be visible not only as artists but as individuals. I realize in speaking with Angela, Debra, and Joyce that WOC artists are visible, making work, and challenging the assumptions of invisibility regularly. It is has never been of question if WOC artists are making work, but rather who is recognizing it? WOC and other artists considered “invisible” are no longer waiting to be heard as artists. They are demanding it. By staying true to themselves, talking about their identities, and not being afraid to speaking out against the assumption that they are the “others” in art; WOC artists are claiming their space in art in Chicago and beyond.
Works Cited:
1. “Chicago Artist’s Month.” City of Chicago , n.d. Web 1.Oct 2013. < http:// chicagoartistsmonth.org/>
2 .Sampson Robert, J. Great American City: Chicago and the Enduring Neighborhood Effect University of Chicago Press. 2012. Book
3 “Intersectionality.” Geekfeminism. n.d , Web. < http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Intersectionality> 1. Oct 2013
4 Owens, Joyce. Interview with Waubonsee Community College. Web. 12 Sept. 2012. Youtube.com
5. “Women Working in Clay” and “State of G/Race” by Sapphire and Crystals” Woman Made Gallery , Web 30 Nov, 2012 <https://womanmadegallery.wordpress.com/tag/sapphire-and-crystals/>