5for5 Discussion 10.21.11

Featured as part of our opening weekend was 5for5: a discussion led by LMU faculty and students on their personal gender experiences.

Guests on the 5for5 panel included: Philosophy Professor Rosalie Siemon, Rabbi Ilana Schachter, Women's Studies Student Leila Pandy, Film and TV Professor Sue Scheibler, and Dean Barbara Busse of the School of Fine Arts. Attending the discussion were women (and some men) of all ages. We were lucky to have a cross-generational discussion and to share such intimate conversation.

Each guest shared a personal and intimate encounter about their gender experience. On top of the panel members' personal stories, some of the notions we discussed involved: the importance of art and sparking discussion, the term "feminism" and issues related such as why women today are often afraid to be identified by this label, what it means to have/not have certain priveleges and how that factors in on our art, our lives, and our causes, and the way that our minds and bodies are affected by external sources and social norms. All in all, the discussion left me feeling inspired and invigorated, but also with the idea that there is a lot of work to be done in order to enable change and progress. 

We would like to thank to share a special thanks to Erin Mallea and Kenzie O'Keefe for organizing this event. Also, we are greatly appreciative of all the panel members and attendees. And thank you to those who contributed photos!

Below are some of the photographs from 5for5. 

Kenzie Introduces our Panel

From Left to Right: Dean Barbara Busse, Professor Sue Scheibler, Student Leila Pandy, Rabbi Ilana Schacter, Professor Rosalie Siemon

Sitting in our Living Room

Leila Discussing her Personal Experience

Gallery Gathering, Post-Meeting Judy Chicago High

Following our attendance at "Doin' It In Public", we met in the gallery space to layout our floor plan. We are now aware of where we will be putting our work, and it's all very exciting. Also, we continued folding our flyers, which are just gorgeous. Here are pictures from our meeting. Cheers.

Chin, Jess, Elise, Erin

Amanda C

Ari, Chin, Jess, Elise, Erin

Erin, Intently Folding

Amanda A, Lisa, Kelsey, Arielle

Amanda D, Amanda A, Lisa

Youngblood Opening & Reception

One of our talented womyn, Amanda D'Egidio, had the opening of her show, Youngblood, which she curated with Sydney Banta, also a Loyola Marymount student. Their show will be up through the first two weeks of October. The Youngblood show features photographs and installations. Please go see it at the student gallery while you can and support a fellow womyn! Here are some photographs of the opening:

Amanda & Sydney, Curators of Youngblood

Our First Meeting in the Gallery Space

The Women of Womynhouse

Jess (left) Kenzie (right)

Elise, Erin, Chin

Well, the semester has begun and the show is just weeks away! Our last meeting was in the gallery space where our show will be. We made good progress and will have a flyer posted here soon. Kelsey Fugere took some photographs of the meeting. Here are some of the faces behind Womynhouse. Enjoy!

Chin, Our Birthday Girl

Elise (left), Erin (right)

Chin, Amanda D

Lovely ladies of OTiS

Yesterday afternoon, Erin, Kenzie, and I met with the lovely Paige and Jenay, interns to the Otis College of Art and Design exhibition of "Doin' It In Public:Feminism and Art At The Women's Building" taking place this Fall in conjunction with Pacific Standard Time. We sat around a sunny bench in the Burns courtyard at LMU to discuss the future of both our projects. Paige and Jenay were very enthusiastic and supportive about our Womynhouse project and we both exchanged pledges to cross-publicize each others events. We were amazed to hear the list of speakers and artists involved in their project! Some of the original "Womanhouse" ladies including Suzanne Lacy and Judy Chicago will be attending these events! We can only hope that our feminist foremothers will be proud of our efforts to re-visualize the original project in a way that genuinely honors both us and them with the utmost respect.

"Doin' It In Public" will last over four months and will take place in amazing venues all over the city. What's even better is that most of these events are either free or affordable for the struggling art student. Yipeee! Some of their highlights include:

October 15-16 Still Doin’ It: Fanning the Flames of the Woman’s Building: Part convening, part symposium, part reunion, part performance, the event is a dialogue between feminist artists then and now. Doin’ It in Public essayists Alexandra Juhasz, Jennie Klein, Michelle Moravec, and Jennifer Sorkin present tours of the exhibition on Saturday afternoon, and WB writers read from their work in the evening at Antioch University. Sunday includes a no-host reunion breakfast with keynote speaker Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, plus interactive dialogues and performances. On Sunday afternoon Phranc, the all-American Jewish lesbian folksinger, hosts “This Is Your Life: the Woman’s Building” at the Skirball Cultural Center.

November 5 A premiere of the film Mother Art Tells Her Story, followed by a tour of the show by feminist art cooperative Mother Art in The Ben Maltz Gallery.

January 14 A presentation by Feminist Art Workers: Cheri Gaulke and Laurel Klick in The Ben Maltz Gallery

Here's a link to their site: http://www.otis.edu/public_programs/ben_maltz_gallery/womansbuilding.html

We look forward to a beautiful collaboration with you!

-Amanda Courtney