Feminist Artist Advice Column

H1N1 for Women in the Arts

2009-12-03T10:15:00.003-06:00

dear auntie,

ain't i as good an artist as the next guy?

Neo-nude Nausea

2009-10-28T12:57:00.000-05:00

Dear Feminist Auntie,

I get upset every time I read an art magazine. Some of them are full of naked women. Old art, new art. It doesn't matter. Mostly the articles are about men doing men's things that men who want to get women write. Or that men who want to be liked by other men write. I guess this is called advertising?

Women write some of the articles about how great men are. What is that?

Aunt Agony, how can I overcome my anxiety and enjoy reading about art by men more?

Director Thinks He is Agent 007

2009-09-24T11:30:00.005-05:00

I work as a progam assistant at an art gallery. I am designing an exhibition. The new big Director has been changing my project. He wants to put his favourite artists in the show instead. He also says I should fix the programs that go with this exhibition. "Make them more cosmopolitan!" I do what he tells me.

The Director called me in to his office. He asked me if I'd like to be supervised by him instead of by my boss. He is her supervisor. She does not know he is doing this.

Aunt Art Agony, this makes me nervous. I didn't know what to tell him. What is this Director trying to do?

Hangers-on Who Should Be In Jail

2009-09-16T13:37:00.003-05:00

Dear Aunt Art Agony,

I am on a committee for the art gallery. We look at art and decide if the gallery can have it forever. Sometimes the gallery buys it and sometimes the artist just gives it for free.

The businessman from the Board talks alot. He made a joke, "Our Director routinely rapes the budget, doesn't he?" The Director blushed and laughed too. The Director is gay. I asked, "Did you say rape?" The man laughed again and said, "Yeah, he just rapes it!!"

Aunt Agony, I am sick to my stomach. What does rape have to do with art committees?

Who's Minding the Shop?

2009-09-10T10:11:00.005-05:00

Dear Aunt Art Agony,

I teach in an art program at a university. One of the male technicians has sexually harassed students and had a sexual relationship with a women student. (She dropped out of school in her fourth year when he ended the relationship.) The students concerned told me what happened but they are too afraid to sign a statement, because this guy has the power to help them or not help them with their work. So he gets away with it. How do I deal with this situation?

Thank you for giving voice to what no one wants to acknowledge,

Your Anonymous Friend

PS. And in case anyone from my art school sees this and thinks that they recognize the situation, could you please delete this e-mail?

Curatorial Commitment Phobia

2009-08-27T10:07:00.005-05:00

Dear Aunt Art Agony,

I was in a meeting at the big art gallery. We were supposed to bring ideas. This gallery director just got fired. People say he became a monk. I heard he went to Ottawa. Everyone in my town celebrated when he left. The Board asked artists to tell them what we wanted to happen next.

Some of us asked for more women's art. This big gallery has hardly any women's art in its collection. It does not show much work by women. Most of the major solo shows are by men.

The main curator said she would not give extra help to women. This curator said she is a feminist. She has worked at the big gallery a long time. She was angry.

Aunt Art Agony, I am afraid to be a woman artist. Do you think I should change?

Perverted Professors of, ahem, Art

2009-08-24T15:53:00.001-05:00

Dear Aunt Art Agony,

The art professors in my town have romances with their students. Some of the professors formed a group, so they can see their young women students late at night. The women yell jokes about their bottoms. Sometimes the professors grab students from behind and say things.

The professors are rich. Some of them lend money to their students. Some of them give their students drugs. Some of them tell their students to get off boards of women's organisations. Some of them give their students one-way tickets to Europe.

My friend is an art student who is dating her professor. He assigns us nude self-portraits. Aunt Art Agony, I am nervous about having sex with my professors, but would I get better marks?

Public Art Gallery More Pubic Than Public

2009-08-24T15:32:00.002-05:00

Dear Aunt Art Agony,

The new director of the big gallery has put shows by women artists on hold, except for women who already have had big shows there. He is taking art by other women out of group shows. Women’s art is disappearing from group catalogues. He tells women that if they pay for their own show, they can have one. He made a new rule that only lets rich Caucasians go to openings. This director likes Marilyn Monroe. They both are famous people.

Aunt Art Agony, I am worried about the future. Will some women become extinct?

Art Jury Gone Haywire

2009-08-24T14:44:00.001-05:00

Dear Aunt Art Agony,

I was on an art jury. The grants officer was a man. One woman interrupted me a lot. She said insulting things after I spoke. Also, one of the men talked all the time about beer, erections and breasts. The grants officer laughed, so we all did too.

On the third day, I asked the grants officer to let me speak like he let the others. He said he was encouraging a lively debate. He thought I was shy. I said I didn’t want to go home feeling bad. He said he would help.

Back in the jury, he criticised something I said, in front of everyone. He made up a new rule for jurors that I broke before I knew about it. I was embarrassed.

Most of the grants went to young white men. This jury did not give many grants to women artists. The men’s art was not better than the women’s art.

Art Aunt Agony, I feel terrible now. What should I have done?

Sculpture Class Harrassment

2009-08-24T14:36:00.000-05:00

Dear Agony Aunt,

I can't ask my mom about this. I am seventeen and in my first sculpture class. I have a big problem. We have to make a clay copy of a man. The real man is sitting on a chair on a platform that the teacher turns. This helps us to get a different view. Then we can make the sculpture more like the man. He is a few years older than I am. He is wearing a red bathing suit and his legs stick out wide open. We have to make our fingers mould the clay in his middle place. He watches us do that.

When the man faces me, he starts winking. He moves his eyebrows and licks his lips. He pets himself. He stares right at me. Everyone watches. Well, do I blush! He is so handsome and bold. When he faces the other students, he stops.

Aunt Agony, am I supposed to do these same things when he looks at me, right in class? It is hard to learn about clay.