Half the Sky: Intersections in Social Practice Art
Cultural Exchange and Exhibition
China
2014
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Overview
In March of 2013, WCA International Caucus member Jing Deng, through her friend and artist Zhao Yin Ou, who lives in Beijing, arranged for the International Caucus of the Women's Caucus for Art to be invited by the Wei Er Shen,  President of LuXun Academy of Fine Arts in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China to create a cultural exchange and exhibition between artists and essayists juried through WCA and women artists curated in China by LuXun Gallery Director Wang Yi Gang and Zhao Yin Ou. This unprecedented opportunity for women artists and essayists in the US to exhibit and share their work and perspectives with women artists in China, followed on the heels of Woman + Body, our October 2012 collaboration with Hye-Seong Tak Lee and women artists in Seoul and Gwangju, South Korea.   Half the Sky: Intersections in Social Practice Artoccurred at the Academy from April 15-30, 2014. LuXun Academy is one of the premier art academies in China and is located in the major metropolitan area of northeast China. 

In addition to the exhibition and the bi-lingual catalog of essays and artists' works,  a  delegation of selected WCA members, traveled to Shenyang for the opening of this exhibition and to participate in several days of interactive events with the Chinese artists as well as students, professors and staff of the Academy. 

Social Practice Art
Social practice art  encompasses a wide range of art forms - public art, interactive media, performance, dialogue, activism, community practice, community building, interventions, and collaborations that cross art, public and social arenas. This project's cultural exchange is in itself a social practice form of art.  In the exhibition, artwork from our juried process and the curated Chinese artists created a powerful environment in which the delegation and Chinese women artists and students participated in a  variety of community and cultural events created by the Half the Sky delegation and members of the Academy:  collaborative art making, a roundtable discussion, interactive examples of social practice art and a sharing of how each of us hold up "half the sky" in our communities.

LuXun Academy of Fine Arts

Dates/Location
Exhibition
April 15-30, 2014

LuXun Academy of Fine ArtsThe Gallery of LuXun Academy of Fine Arts 
Atten: Mr. Dan Zhuanghua or Mr. Zhang Ming
19, Sanhao Street, Heping District, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China, 110004 
tel: 86-24-23930124 

鲁迅美术学院 美术馆
接受人：但壮华先生 张明先生
三好街19号 和平区沈阳辽宁省中国，110004
电话：86-24-23930124
Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China

Link to Press Kit

More documentation is being processed. In the meantime, HTS delegate Mido Lee has provided this brief view of the exhibition

Art, Artists, Juror and Curators
More information available on our Art and Artists/US page and our Art and Artists/China page.
The variety of opportunities for artists and the variety of offerings by artists in this project was rich, thought-provoking, innovative and impressive. Alma Ruiz, Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, viewed much of this variety and narrowed her selections to thirty pieces from the US-based artists that were displayed at the LuXun Academy of Fine Arts Gallery with Chinese women artists curated by Gallery Director and Curator Wang Yi Gang and Co-curator Zhao Yin Ou. Artists  also facilitated interactive pieces and installations that enabled our WCA delegate artists and our Chi nese hosts to cross cultural and language barriers in order to build community and understanding. Each of our WCA delegates had the option to provide additional art and a statement about their connection to this project for inclusion in a section of the gallery and catalog dedicated to the cultural exchange. 
Theme
Almost a half-century ago, Chairman Mao Zedong, who famously said “Women hold up half the sky,” believed women’s active participation in reform would solve China’s economic and societal challenges. More recently, women and men leaders across the world are calling for women’s voices to be heard in all decision making. The theme is now a movement, a documentary, a musical recording. Michelle Bachelet, head of UN Women, opened the UN Commission on the Status of Women 2013 conference by extolling the benefits of being 53% of the world’s population. Women do not need permission, they simply need to speak and act.

Artists were encouraged to interpret this theme broadly. What does it mean to be the majority of the world’s population? What must women do to hold up their “half”? How do women from different cultures interpret this responsibility, this call to action? How do we encourage and support each other through art?

Alma Ruiz, US Juror for Half the Sky: Intersections in Social Practice Art; Senior Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; http://sites.moca.org/thecurve/category/alma-ruiz/

US Juror for Call for Art
Alma Ruiz, Senior Curator at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. 
Educated at Middlebury College and Università di Firenze, in Florence, Italy, Ms. Ruiz has been with LA MOCA for 29 years during which she curated numerous exhibitions of contemporary art including Lynda Benglis (2011) at New Museum, Suprasensorial: Experiments in Light, Color, and Space (2010) at LA MOCA, and Basquiat (2005) at Brooklyn Museum. and art biennials in the United States and Latin America including the V Panama Biennial, the Tamayo Biennial in Mexico City, the Second Exhibition of Central American emerging artists in San Jose, Costa Rica, and Women Artists on Immigration (a Women's Caucus for Art project) in Los Angeles. She has served as a panelist for The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans and Creative Capital Foundation in New York, and is a member of the Advisory Committee for the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation in Miami, Florida. http://sites.moca.org/thecurve/category/alma-ruiz/

Wang Yi Gang, Chinese Curator for Half the Sky: Intersections in Social Practice Art; Director of LuXun Academy of Fine Arts Gallery

Essays ,Essayists and Juror for Essays
More information is available on our Essay and Essayists page.

Theme
The Academy had asked us to have an essay component to the catalog around the topic of Contemporary Art Practices of Women in the US.  Are there any remaining and defining boundaries to women's art practices and how does this relate to a definition of art as a whole? Are there still niches of art practice particular to a woman's perspective?  What are the roots of Social Practice Art in relation to women's art history? How are Social Practice Art academic programs shaping the work of women artists? This art and cultural exchange project with its opportunities for building community and common understanding, collaborative art creation, and dialogue is, in itself, a piece of Social Practice Art. How are such works critiqued? How do we put Social Practice works in context with other art forms? Which women artists in the United States are creating excitement in today’s art marketplace and/or influencing art practices?  Essayists are also invited to submit essays about their collaborations with community organizations and other aritsts as well as their relationship to aesthetics, documentation practices and social interventions.  

Wall of Gratitude - Thank you to our Half the Sky
Donors!
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INDIEGOGO CAMPAIGN
Listed in order of when donations to our Indiegogo campaign were received:

• Carole Richard Kaufmann
  
• Steve Kriner
  
• Sherri Cornett
  
• Anonymous
• Alli Berman
  
• Krista Jiannacopolous
  
• Helen R  Klebesadel
  
• Negin Moss
  
• Emma Kriner
  
• Ronna Berliner
  
• Yale Epstein
  
• Virginia Maksymowicz
  
• Leonardo and Simone      Kestelman
  
• Athena Tacha Spear
  
• Sandra Mueller
• Ellen Schillace
• Sally Simmons
• Christine Filippone
• Krishna Ribeiro
• Helen Abelman
• Michelle Andrade
• Ulla Barr 
• Linda Lemire
• Lise Webb
• Cory Cornett
• Collin Kriner
• Anonymous
• Cindy Hue
• Jing Deng
• Kevin Cornett
• Catherine McDonough
• Karen Schifman
• Susan Kraft
• Stella Zee
• Jeane Vogel
• Kirk Jiannacopoulos
• Beth Olds
• Priscilla Otani
• Cheri Redlinger
• Marilyn Hayes
• Robin Taylor
• Louise Jane
• Ann Rowles
• Maureen Burns-Bowie
• Liz Dodson
• Margaret Parker
• Kieran Collins
• Elizabeth Moss
• Nancy Kriner & Barry Kolbert
• Janice Nesser
• Carolyn Ostby
• Rosalind Bloom
• Marcia Annenberg
• Brenda Oelbaum
• Karen Gutfreund
• Mido Lee
• Helen R. Klebesadel 
• Sandra Hunter
• Joan M Kelly
• Rona Lesser
• Kesa Kivel
• Merion Gibb
• Cathy Salser
• Anonymous
• Sandy Yagi
• Jing Deng
• Cecilia Rossey
• Kelsey McDonnell
• Anonymous
• Doris H Statler
• Doni Silver Simons
• Meg M King
• Kyra Belan
• Anonymous
• Barbara Reid
• Barbara Carson
• M. Bibi Wolke
• Bonita Tabakin
• Kay Kang
• Amanda Moyer
• Ruth Segaloff

OTHER DONATIONS

• Patty Izzo
• Alice Dubiel
• Ikie Kressel

IN-KIND DONATIONS

• Karen Gutfruend & Scott Vouri

Through this online fundraising effort, we hope to raise $6000. This amount would cover room & board for the fifteen artists and essayists in the delegation that will travel to China to create collaborative events with Chinese women artists , $100 travel stipends for each delegate, editing/printing/shipping of catalog to participants/donors, tech equipment (hard drives, computer pad, converters, speakers), baggage fees for tech equipment/catalogs/gifts, art materials for events, gifts for our hosts, printing of signage/posters/postcards.  We will make every effort to raise even more so that we can provide larger  subsidies for travel expenses and, if we are extremely successful , assistance with shipping costs. 

Juror for Essays
Terri Weissman, an assistant professor of Art History: Modern and Contemporary Art, and the History of Photography and other lens-based media at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and author of The Realisms of Berenice Abbot. Dr. Weissman has earned the following degrees: BA, Oberlin College; MA, Columbia University; PhD, Columbia University
http://illinois.edu/ds/search?search_&search=tweissma

Delegates
For more information, see our Delegates page 

LuXun Academy of Fine Art officials asked WCA to bring a delegation of US-based artists to Shenyang in order to inter act with Chinese artists, professors and students during the first days of the exhibition. Participants of this project were asked to apply separately for membership in this working delegation. Each delegate went through a rigorous interview process and has, since selection, actively contributed to the project based on their unique skills. With its opportunities for community building, dialogue, and collaborative projects, the activities of the delegation were documented as a significant element of this social practice art project. 

Press, Social Media and Blogs

Takungpao coverage of Half the Sky: Intersections in Social Practice Art

Facebook Page for Half the Sky: Intersections in Social Practice Art. 
https://www.facebook.com/HalftheSkyIntersectionsofSocialPracticeArt?ref=hl

The Body Impolitic Blog
http://laurietobyedison.com/discuss/2014/04/chineseus-feminist-exhibition-in-china/

Tao Kung Pao newspaper, page A16
http://news.takungpao.com.hk/paper/20140419.html?A16
http://paper.takungpao.com/resfile/PDF/20140419/PDF/a16_screen.pdf
http://news.takungpao.com.hk/paper/q/2014/0419/2431796.html

Half the Sky Delegate  and Installation Director Rosemary Meza-DesPlas featured on the Dallas Country Community College District website
http://www.dcccd.edu/AU/MedRelate/News/Pages/ChinaArt04-08-14.aspx

Half the Sky Delegate and Events Director Sandra Mueller recognized in Malibu Times
http://www.malibutimes.com/malibu_life/people/article_3744f2e0-c5ab-11e3-a4b8-0019bb2963f4.html

LuXun Academy website
http://www.lumei.edu.cn/news/140421.html

Half the Sky: Intersections of Social Practice Art Committees 

STEERING  COMMITTEE
Sherri Cornett - Director
Jing Deng - Co-Director
Wang Yi Gang - Curator of Chinese Art
Yin Ou Zhao - Co-Curator of Chinese Art
Priscilla Otani - Human Resources Director
Sandra Mueller - Project Development, Cultural and Community Events Director
Karen Gutfreund -  Travel/Administrative Logistics 
Alli Berman - Fundraising and Publicity Director
Krista Jiannacopoulos - Social Media/Publicity
Mido Lee - Assistant to the Director

DELEGATES
S. A. Bachman*
Alli Berman
Audrey Chan*
Sherri Cornett
Jing Deng
Christine Giancola
Kay Kang
Mido Lee
Elana Mann
Rosemary Meza-DesPlas
Neda Moridpour
Katie Morton
Sandra Mueller
Brenda Oelbaum
Priscilla Otani
Jill Waterhouse*
*were unable to travel to Shenyang

CATALOG
Sherri Cornett - Editor
Alli Berman
Jing Deng
Karen Gufreund
Mido Lee
Virginia Maksymowicz
Sandra Mueller
Priscilla Otani
Jill Waterhouse

COMMUNICATIONS 
Virginia Maksymowicz - Communications Director

CULTURAL AND COMMUNITY EVENTS
Sandra Mueller - Director
S. A. Bachman
Alli Berman
Audrey Chan
Sherri Cornett
Elana Mann
Neda Moridpour

DOCUMENTATION
Christine Giancola - Documentation Director
S. A. Bachman
Audrey Chan
Sherri Cornett
Mido Lee
Elana Mann
Neda Moridpour

FUNDRAISING COMMITTEE
Alli Berman , Director
Sherri Cornett 
Krista Jiannacopoulos
Sal Sidner 

INSTALLATION
Rosemary Meza-DesPlas - Installation Director
S. A. Bachman
Alli Berman
Audrey Chan
Jing Deng
Kay Kang
Mido Lee
Elana Mann
Neda Moridpour
Katie Morton
Sandra Mueller
Brenda Oelbaum

PUBLICITY
Alli Berman, Co-Director
Jill Waterhouse, Co-Director
Sherri Cornett
Krista Jiannacopoulos 
Kay Kang
Rosemary Meza-DesPlas
Sandra Mueller

RESEARCH/ADVISORS
Tanya Augsburg 
Kieran Collins 
Diane Ding
Krista Jiannacopolous 
Bonnie MacAllister 
Meng Tang
Wanxin Zhang