The Female Artists’ Workshop
I recently attended my first Female Artists’ Workshop, led by Emily Feinstein (International Liberation Reference Person for Visual Artists). There were twenty-seven attendees in all, and fourteen of us were Indigenous, Black, or People of the Global Majority. Emily met on Friday with our Indigenous, Black, and People of the Global Majority group. It was amazing to be with female artists of colour and be reminded that I am not alone with the many challenges I come up against as I reach for reclaiming being an artist.
Emily told us that racism wipes out [destroys] our stories and sexism tells us that it doesn’t matter. We are marginalized because being a female artist and having a voice is not aligned with the oppressive society. Internalized artists’ oppression and internalized sexism set us up [predispose us] to feeling like we’ve failed and need to go away and have the fight alone. We need to stay with each other and not get confused as we each show our most vulnerable places. We need to build resources around each other. Emily suggested that we reach out to other female artists and form a small group that meets periodically to support and discharge with each other.
She encouraged us to tell our stories, to celebrate our voices, to claim “living out loud,” and to stay connected while doing it. She also said that female intelligence in action and taking stands is a great form of agitation—so go out and agitate! We can discharge so we know that every piece of our mind we reclaim, and where we put our mind, matters.
I spent the early years of my life surrounded by white people, so my attention has been taken up with racism and internalized racism. I have not put a lot of attention on sexism, so to put “female” in front of everything—”female artist,” “female musician”—is not easy, but I can see that it is necessary for my re-emergence.
I recently retired from teaching and decided to put my attention on being an artist. I started a collective with two other women, and we did two projects together—one a video art installation and the other an eight-part web series. I learned a lot and am now doing a solo project. I am collecting audio recordings of Black Canadians sharing the history of their ancestors’ journeys to Canada and what they themselves have experienced living and growing up in Canada. I am also looking at how Black Canadians’ experiences are part of the fabric of Canadian history and need to be included and documented in our history books. I recently received a grant from the Canadian Arts Council to use toward my project.
Even though I have done these projects, it is still hard for me to claim being an artist. In my mind I’ve had a narrow definition of “artist”: only certain people could be artists, and only certain activities could be considered art. Being at the workshop helped me rethink this and see that what I do is art. I am a collector of stories, a storyteller, and a writer. I am a female artist. Fully female in everything I do!
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion list for leaders of artists
(Present Time 201, October 2020)