The Cultural Arts Tours and Workshops (CAT&W) is presenting this second annual Women’s Art Exhibit curated by Vanessa Acosta of Santa Paula, the founding director of CAT&W.
The exhibit will open Friday, March 6 and run through March 29; the opening night reception — featuring art, poetry and music — will be held from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Bell Arts Community Salon at Bell Arts Factory located at 432 N. Ventura Ave., Ventura.
The exhibit features art by Jacqueline Biaggi, Karen Browdy, Gayel Childress, Lynn Creighton, Lois Freeman-Fox, Graciela Gandara, Marlaina Herman, Maribel Hernandez, Silvia Huerta, Wana Klasen, Judy Klement, Sylvia Raz, Virginia Neuman, Michelle Noscoe and Andrea Vargas-Mendoza.
Several of the artists as well as Acosta live and have their studios in Santa Paula.
The theme for the 2015 Women’s History Month is “Weaving the Stories of Women’s Lives” and each artist featured in the display has based their artwork on the theme that presents the opportunity to weave women’s stories — individually and collectively — into the essential fabric of our nation’s history.
According to Women’s History Project, which sponsors History Month, accounts of the lives of individual women are “critically important because they reveal exceptionally strong role models who share a more expansive vision of what a woman can do. The stories of women’s lives, and the choices they made, encourage girls and young women to think larger and bolder, and give boys and men a fuller understanding of the female experience. Knowing women’s achievements challenges stereotypes and upends social assumptions about who women are and what women can accomplish today.”
There is a real power in hearing women’s stories, both personally and in a larger context and seeing their art that reflects their lives, impressions and experiences. Remembering and recounting tales of our ancestors’ talents, sacrifices, and commitments inspires today’s generations and opens the way to the future.
2015 is also the 35th anniversary of the Women’s History Movement and the National Women’s History Project, which noted, “We are proud that, after decades of dedicated research and technological advances, the stories of American women from all cultures and classes are accessible and visible as never before. Numerous scholars and activists helped shape the Women’s History Movement, and also provided the research and energy that created and sustains the National Women’s History Project. During 2015, we recognize and celebrate the many ways that women’s history has become woven into the fabric of our national story.”
For more information on the Bell Arts Factory exhibit call Acosta at 805-229-7103.
