Libraries and Centers: Margery Somers Foster Center: Projects: Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series Collection:
Subgroup Descriptions

Subgroup 1. Contemporary Women Artists Files

Arranged alphabetically by name of artist, then chronologically by dates of materials.

Based on materials collected by the Women Artists Series since its beginning, the CWAF was established in 1994, not only to document the artists who submitted to the Series, but to provide evidence of the presence of women as artists since the 1970s despite their secondary status and low visibility in the art world. Series coordinators actively solicited materials such as resumes, artist statements, slides, and exhibition ephemera, to provide documentation of women artists who might otherwise remain undocumented. In addition, correspondence between the artists and the Series give a sense of the workings of Series staff during the selection process. Approximately 1500 artists are currently documented in the Files. Similar material related to artists who were selected for exhibition will be found in the Exhibited Artists Files.

The most recent preferred professional name was determined for each artist in the collection, and this was used as the folder heading. The container list for this subgroup also includes any alternate names, the date range of materials in each folder, and information about juried artists for the 1987/1988 and 1988/1989 seasons.

Subgroup 2. Women Artists Series Exhibited Artists Files

Arranged alphabetically by name of artist, then chronologically by activity and/or dates of materials.

The Exhibited Artists Files contain material related to all artists exhibited by the Series since 1971, and provides significant documentation of the careers of the artists, particularly of their contributions to the Series, as well as documentation of the exhibitions themselves and the related activities of the Series staff. Most of the materials are described in the container list as research, exhibition, or catalog materials. Research materials include resumes, slides, exhibition catalogs and ephemera, clippings, and videotapes. Exhibition materials include artist statements, checklists, artist correspondence, Series staff correspondence and office records, Series exhibition ephemera and publicity materials, and floppy disks with printouts of their files. Catalog materials include photographic prints, artist statements, drafts of essays, correspondence related to catalog production, and to a limited degree the catalogs themselves. Series artists who are represented exceptionally well include Alice Aycock (13 folders), Minna Citron (6), Janet Culbertson (14), Loretta Dunkelman (16), Linda Lindroth (11), Hung Liu (12), Halina Rusak (6), Carolee Schneemann (9), Joan Snyder (15), and June Wayne (9).

In addition to the individual artists' exhibitions, artists' contributions to a number of group shows and retrospectives are also documented in the individual artists' files. These include the large Series retrospectives held in 1981, 1992 and 1996, an exhibition of Douglass College alumnae held during the 1998/1999 season, and the group shows Modern Masters: Women of the First Generation (1982/1983), Ageless Perceptions: Forms of Abstraction (1989/1990) and Private Eye (1998/1999).

The Estelle Lebowitz Visiting Artist-in-Residence Lectureship was inaugurated in 1999, and activities related to it are documented in great detail in the folders of Lebowitz herself, and in those of the artists who received the Lectureship: Carolee Schneeman (1999/2000), Siri Berg (1999/2000), June Wayne (2000/2001), Hung Liu (2001/2002), and Miriam Schapiro (2004/2005).

Also of particular significance are folders of research materials gathered in 2002 by Rutgers students engaged in a senior art history seminar that studied women artists who were graduates of Douglass College, using this collection as one research resource.

Researchers gathering information on a specific exhibited artist may wish to also consult the folders in the Operational Files corresponding to the season in which the artist was exhibited. In instances where there is no material related to an artist's participation in a particular exhibition (largely limited to the 1981 retrospective), a note appears chronologically in the container list under the name of the artist, so that the container list may serve as a complete record of each artist's contributions to the Series.

Subgroup 3. Women Artists Series Operational Files

Arranged chronologically by exhibition season, then by type of record or activity.

The Operational Files contain the organizational records of the Women Artists Series, exclusive of most records related to specific artists, which are found in the Exhibited Artists Files. The files document the founding of the Series, the planning and implementation of all exhibits and programs, budgeting and fundraising, marketing and publicity, the production of all publications, and the activities of the juries, Advisory Board, and Series staff. The anniversary celebrations are particularly well documented; records for the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Retrospective (1996/1997) make up 3 cubic feet of the collection. Other exhibits and programs that involve multiple artists are also well documented here, including the New Jersey Women Artists exhibits of 1974-1983, the Douglass College Alumnae exhibits of 1998/1999 and 1999/2000, the Representative Works retrospective of 1984, public programs including Hair Culture (1997) and Censorship, Intellectual Freedom and the Arts (2000), and the Estelle Lebowitz Visiting Artist-in-Residence Lectureship (1998-present). Special files of particular interest include "The Rip-Off File" (1972/1973), a collection of evidence of discrimination against women in art education gathered by Lynn Miller, and the public comment books from the Series exhibitions of 1995/1996-1999/2000.

Materials include both external and internal correspondence, notes, financial reports, budgets, receipts, purchase orders, grant proposals and reports, drafts, corrected proofs and finished copies of Series publications, press clippings, press releases, mailing lists, insurance valuations and requests, transportation and installation instructions, installation diagrams, public program lectures, and jury records. Most material is on paper, with some photographic material, computer disks, and videotape.

At the beginning of the collection is located a small group of undated documents, and a series of selected copies of documents dated 1971-1996 that duplicate items found in the regular chronology. Researchers searching for information on a particular season are encouraged to also consult the Exhibited Artists Files under the names of the artists who exhibited during that season.