Women’s Words Art Exhibit showcases local women artists
Event launches Daybreak’s Women’s Words Week benefit
By Ellie Castano
UMass Medical School Communications | April 13, 2011 |
This mixed media piece titled “come on in” is one of five works by Lisa Barthelson in the Women’s Words Art Exhibit that benefits Daybreak. She is among 23 women artists represented in the show. |
The Lamar Soutter Library will host an art exhibit as part of a series of events to benefit the YWCA of Central Massachusetts’
Daybreak, a resource that provides domestic violence services. The exhibit, called Women’s Words Art Exhibit, features the work of area women artists, some well known and some who are just getting started. The opening of the exhibit launches Daybreak’s
Women’s Words Week, a series of benefits that includes a writer’s workshop, an author’s evening and a film celebration, all of which take place in late April and early May. The exhibit will be on dispaly in the Soutter Library from April 15 through May 15.
“This is an exhibit with depth, breadth and considerable heart,” said Women’s Words Art Exhibit committee co-chair Barbara Drapos. “There is beauty, to be sure. There is also work that challenges the viewer to question, without providing easy answers. Of course there are female figures caught by the camera or on canvas. Most importantly, whether or not the subject is female, the perspective certainly is.”
According to Drapos, the goal of the selection committee was to include art from better known artists, such as Terri Priest, as well as from those who, though just emerging, show considerable promise. In addition to Drapos, the selection committee included co-chair Suzanne Patton, who has experience coordinating shows that benefit the Family Health Center of Worcester; Honee Hess of the Worcester Art Museum; Kristin Waters, PhD, a professor of philosophy and women’s studies at Worcester State University; Nancy Harger, who coordinates the Artist in Residence series of the UMMS Lamar Soutter Library; and Nellie Toney of the UMMS Diversity and Equal Opportunity Office who is a longtime Daybreak volunteer. A portion of the proceeds made through the sale of artwork will benefit
Daybreak, the YWCA of Central Massachusetts resource that provides comprehensive, free and confidential services for youth, teens and adults living with domestic violence in central Massachusetts.
The art exhibit is part of the YWCA’s fundraising series Women’s Words Week, which features a Women Authors Evening with Tess Gerritson, MD, the international bestselling author of medical thrillers, including Harvest, The Keepsake, The Mephisto Club, Vanish Body Double and The Bone Garden. Two of her women characters are the basis for the new TNT series Rizzoli and Isles. With her medical background, Gerritson is able to translate complex medical science for lay readers. She also lectures at science education events and teaches a writing course for physicians who want to become novelists. Women Authors Evening will be hosted by the UMass Medical School Professional Women’s Committee Women’s Leadership Work Group on Monday, May 2, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the Faculty Conference Room. Tickets are $30 and proceeds benefit Daybreak. Free parking is available. For additional information, contact Nellie Toney at 508-856-2467 or at Nellie.toney@umassmed.edu.
Other Women’s Words Week events include the Writer’s Workshop, which will connect evolving writers with writing experts and publishing resources. The workshop is hosted by Worcester Polytechnic Institute on Saturday, April 30, from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in Kinnicutt Hall. Admission is $55 ($25 for students) and includes breakfast and lunch. Guest writers include Noah Bombard, Mary Bonina, Jan Brogan, Lora Brueck, Tom Campbell, Kimberly Newton Fusco, Claire Mowbray Golding, Janice Harvey, Judith Jaeger, April Jones, Ginger Navickas, Susan Rako, Eve Rifkah, Lynne Riley, S.J. Wolfe and Trish Wooldridge. On Thursday, May 5, Worcester State University will host the Women and Film Celebration, which features local filmmaker Laurie Kahn and her film TUPPERWARE!, a humorous look at a lost slice of American history. The event will be held in Ghosh & Tech Room at Worcester State University, with the film screening at 6 p.m., followed by a conversation with filmmaker Kahn at 7 p.m. Tickets are $20.
For more information about Women’s Words Week, visit http://www.ywcacentralmass.org/events/womens-words-week.
Women’s Words Week is presented by Women Authors in New England. Jean King, PhD, professor of psychiatry, chairs the Women’s Words Week committee and is a longtime member of the YWCA of Central Massachusetts board.