ELAN Blog Salon “My Life in Art”: Passion for Community

Welcome to ELAN’s Blog Salon! All week we featured articles from ELAN members around the theme of “My Life in Art”. Members talked about their lives as artists, arts administrators and arts supporters.

Closing out the week is a wonderful story from Co-Chair Sarah Turner on how she found passion in a community of artists with The Feminist Museum.
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Passion. As an artist, art administrator, or art supporter, one requires passion for the work they create and celebrate. When I think about what I am passionate about, two things come to mind: feminism and collaboration. This past winter, I was able to combine both in a fulfilling experience through my work in The Feminist Museum’s exhibition “Object/Subject”.

This exhibition explored femininity in contemporary culture and was created by myself and my peers, Britt Bowen, Cat Bradley, Stephanie Johnson, and Mattie Reynolds. We had developed the idea of a feminist museum collective over a year ago, and were able to present our first exhibition in the LaVerne Krause Gallery in March of 2013.  All of the women in the collective stood at various points of the spectrum of feminism, which stood as a challenge and an opportunity for creativity. Each of us created a work that would be presented within the exhibition that spoke to our personal experiences with our indignation against the patriarchy.  Together, the pieces melded into a unique representation of our connected experiences and varying levels of radicalism.

Reflecting back on this project, my most cherished experience was including an array of women artists to join our exhibition and share their voice about contemporary feminism. I was able to reach out to artists on campus whom I had known of, but never worked with before. Their work was astonishing in both artistic practice and backing of feminist ideology. Through the inclusion of their work, we made friends and new connections on how other women view themselves within the discourse of feminism.

At the opening reception of our exhibition, we were able to book a band to play—Lady Paw, friends of mine who are all self-declared feminists. The energy was high as there was a huge crowd drawn throughout the exhibition: listening to the music, viewing the art, and starting conversations about feminism as inspired by the space around them. At that particular moment, I felt this immense gratitude of community that had developed in this tiny gallery space. A group of women had come together through creativity and passion to create this amazing buzz of energy and connections. It was personally impactful to discover such a wonderful group of people, passionate about the same issues I was, and sharing these conversations with a new group of people.

As a person, it is important to create and share with those around you. I was surprised that the small beginnings of a simple idea could grow to become such a fulfilling network of friends and activism. As I continue on my path of life, I will seek out experiences that are holistic and deeply meaningful—and will surely find great people along the way.

Sarah Turner graduates from the Arts and Administration Department at the University of Oregon in June. She works to inspire creative collaboration in her work, research, and personal life. 

For more information on The Feminist Museum, please check out: http://thefeministmuseum.wordpress.com/.