Field Trip: Designing Women

Celebrating Women’s History Month, we’ll revisit some favorites, and discover some new ones * Redefining the “F” word * Guerrilla Girls * Nervy Girls * Professional Women Web Designers * Nerd Girls * Girl Scouts of the USA and more

Guerilla girls billboard

Redefining the “F” word … Feminism!

quoting In 1985, The Museum of Modern Art in New York opened an exhibition titled An International Survey of Painting and Sculpture. It was supposed to be an up-to-the minute summary of the most significant contemporary art in the world. Out of 169 artists, only 13 were women. All the artists were white, either from Europe or the US. That was bad enough, but the curator, Kynaston McShine, said any artist who wasn’t in the show should rethink ‘his’ career. And that really annoyed a lot of artists because obviously the guy was completely prejudiced. Women demonstrated in front of the museum with the usual placards and picket line. Some of us who attended were irritated that we didn’t make any impression on passersby. end quote

From Guerilla Girls first book, Confessions of the Guerrilla Girls published in 1995.

How and Why Did the Guerrilla Girls Alter the Art World

This is the introduction to the 1985 exhibition An International Survey of Painting and Sculpture and how it changed the world! Documents selected and interpreted by Suzanne Lustig under the direction of Kathryn Kish Sklar*, at State University of New York at Binghamton*. It reveals a movement, little known to most, that would springboard women in the arts to new, and much deserved, notoriety. This is a fascinating story for anyone interested in the world of creative visual arts!

How and Why Did the Guerrilla Girls Alter the Art World
Establishment in New York City, 1985-1995?

This article and interview gives you insight into the Guerrilla Girls movement, how it started and what it means to women in the arts today. A truly wonderful article!

The Museum of Modern Art Designing Women


Nervy Girls ~ Guerrilla Girls!

guerilla girls poster for women's studies symposium

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Well, I just had to go back and visit the Guerrilla Girls again this year, it’s still just as much fun as it was back in 2006 when we first introduced you to them…

The Thinking Woman’s Magazine, is now dead. It was based on the revolutionary idea that young women enjoy thinking about issues beyond makeup and boyfriends, the volunteer-produced Nervy Girl! Fortunately, they’ve been reincarnated as Guerrilla Girls

While visiting, make sure to see the Guerrilla Girls’ Bedside Companion where they tell the story of Maria Robusti, daughter of Venetian painter Tintoretto — and other highlights in the history of western art — and do NOT miss their poster exhibition

Also, grab a copy of their “DON’T STEREOTYPE ME! sticker, to print on adhesive paper, put up where it’s needed most.

Download the StereoSticker.zip seen at right,


Visit guerrillagirls.com

Guerrilla Girls Poster Gallery (where you’ll find our header poster above)

GENDER STUDIES SYMPOSIUMGender Studies Symposium

Yes, it’s the 29th Annual Lewis & Clark College GENDER STUDIES SYMPOSIUM: The Science of Gender and Sex March 10-12, 2010. The symposium features a star-studded line-up of women speakers, and highlights an art Exhibition featuring work by L&C contributors as well as by Portland artists. This exhibit displays a variety of approaches to questions of gender and identity in a wide range of different media. Curated by L&C students Kelsey Chapple and Casey MacDonald. The exhibit is open daily throughout the symposium.

All the details at www.lclark.edu/
* See the “Guerrillagirls” poster from the 2003 Gender Studies Symposium at Lewis & Clark College, and compare it to the 2006 poster
      Yes, you have come a long way baby!

Professional Women Web Designers

Here’s an online community of women web designers, learning, networking, trying out things, ranting about things, but having a good time sharing what they do for a living. They all own their own web design business — women entrepreneurs — professional, experienced, web designers
Professional Women Web Designers www.womendesignersgroup.com


Nerd Girls Team from Tufts University

Nerd Girls solar powered carMeet the NERD GIRLS

The Nerd Girls project takes an in depth and intimate look at women in engineering. It highlights their diverse talents and demonstrates their ability to work as a team striving to accomplish a challenging, but doable engineering project.

Check out the Nerd Girl’s solar car called the Anne E. B., which won the American Tour de Sol 95 – 1st Place Solar Cross Continental Category and American Tour de Sol 95 – Most Efficient Solar Cross Continental Category
Here ae all the details… on the Nerd Girls project
Tufts University
Tufts School of Multimedia Arts

Teen Girls Know Their Way Around The Net

A survey released by the Girl Scouts of the USA reveals new information about the behavior of teen girls online. Over half the girls (58%) reported they were the savviest computer users at home and 18% say they could hack into a school computer. Most of the respondents reported that they could use their tech knowledge to get around parental rules, with 86% saying they secretly chat, 57% can read parent’s email and 42% can access porn sites. Parents who are not as tech savvy as their children are advised to keep abreast of Internet technologies and their children’s online activities. From Karen Thomas, formerly for USA Today
www.jr.co. – Teen Girls Know Their Way Around The Net


This month, DTG readers and subscribers of the Design Cafe share some brief comments about Designing Women, or Women in History
      We hope you enjoy these thoughtful comments as much as we did. BRAVO! Each of these will win a great prize from the Design Center.


Art Nouveau with Margaret MacDonald

Art Nouveau with Margaret MacDonald

Debbie writes:

quoting My favorite “Designing Woman” has to be Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh, wife of famed “Arts and Crafts” designer, Rennie Macintosh. end quote

Although best known for her large gesso panels, she was equally at home in such mediums as watercolors, graphics, metalwork and textiles. Now somewhat eclipsed by her husband, in her time she was well-known and a major influence on such people as Gustav Klimt and Josef Hoffmann. Her own husband admitted “Margaret is half if not three-quarters of all my work…” and “Margaret has genius, I have only talent.”
Opera of the Winds painting
Parfumme from
Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh [END QUOTE]

Thank you Debbie for contributing. Debbie uses Windows XP and PhotoshopCS extensively for her masterpieces at DavinciDesigns.com
Debbie is a photographer from Lincoln, NE USA


Lindsey of Apperly Design

Women have the advantage!

Lindsey writes:

quoting I’ve run my own business for 5 years and I find being a woman an advantage! Clients tend to trust you more and some have said women are more creative. end quote

Lindsey

I design brochures, leaflets, logos, websites and have recently set up a sideline called Artylicious designing and selling cavases. I’m really excited about it and its something I love doing. I sell pop art, flowers, abdtract and photography on canvas and also on roller blinds.
      My computer platform is Mac OSX and favourite software at the momet is Illstrator CS, the brushes are great for designing my canvases! [END QUOTE]
Editorial Design
Post Cards
Logos
Lindsey is a design professional from Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK Visit Lindsey’s online gallery at: www.apperleydesign.co.uk

Women in the Military

Women In Military Service For America Memorial is a unique, living memorial honoring all military women – past, present and future.
Go to: http://www.womensmemorial.org/

Women, Enterprise & Society:

A Guide to Resources in the Business
      This is an online publication that identifies materials in the Business Manuscripts Collection at Baker Library and documents women’s participation in American business and culture from the eighteenth through the twentieth century. The launch of WES represents the culmination of a three-year project to identify and catalog resources for study of the unexplored sections of Baker Library’s manuscript collections. Researchers will find, for example, that the guide does not include papers of major twentieth-century women entrepreneurs or corporate leaders. The guide does, however, include hundreds of individual items, such as account books, day books, letters, legal documents, and payroll registers. These materials clearly document the extent to which women were an integral part of the fabric of American economic and business life, participating in and contributing to enterprise and society in ways that were largely overlooked until recently.
Go to: http://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/wes/

Distinguished Women

This site has biographies of women who contributed to our culture in many different ways. There are writers, educators, scientists, heads of state, politicians, civil rights crusaders, artists, entertainers, and others. Some were alive hundreds of years ago and some are living today. We’ve heard of some of them, while many more have been ignored by history book writers.
Go to: http://www.distinguishedwomen.com/

Happy March

Designing Women continues on the next page …

Thanks for reading

Fred Showker

Don’t forget … we encourage you to share your discoveries and favorites with other readers. Just comment below, discuss it in the Design Cafe, send an email, or give me a tweet at Twitter/DTG_Magazine