To celebrate Women’s History Month, Augustana’s Teaching Museum of Art will be participating in the national social media campaign #5WomenArtists that is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts.  Last year 520 art and cultural organizations from seven continents and 30 countries participated in this social media campaign and this year Augustana will also participate.
Augustana junior Lauren Clapp is in charge of the social media for Augustana’s participation in the #5WomenArtists campaign.
“The #5WomenArtists movement is a movement born out of the fact that female artists are greatly underrepresented in the art sphere and try to start a conversation about why this happens and what we can do to combat this issue,” Clapp stated.
The Augustana Teaching Museum of Art is participating in the #5WomenArtists movement with daily posts on social media.  Claire Kovacs, the director of Augustana’s Teaching Museum of Art explained that these posts will include topics like “what it is Wednesday” which has beautiful and poignant graphics from the National Museum of Women in the Arts that showcase information about equity in auction records and awards.
Thursday’s posts will challenge followers to name five women artists, and “Fun Fact Friday” has facts about gender inequity in the world of visual arts. Saturday has posts that spotlight women artists such as an artist form the Quad Cities and an Augustana alumni.
Hung Liu, a Chinese artist of paper cutting will also be spotlighted and Liu will have a show in Tredway Library at the end of March.
“I hope that the program will inform a lot of people about an issue that is often overlooked or simply not noticed. Just by noticing the issue and starting [to have]a discussion about why this is happening is a step in the right direction,” Clapp said. Clapp thinks the program is needed because “the fine arts world has long been a boy’s club and this movement not only supports the women trying to change that but also encourages other women to become involved and make their name known.”
Kovacs stated that this campaign is important because “art can be a way into contemporary issues and contemporary dialogues” and that participating in this national campaign allows Augustana to be in dialogue with an international community.
If you are interested in keeping up with this campaign through Augustana’s Teaching Museum of Art check out the museum’s Instagram (@augieartmuseum), Twitter (@AugieArt), and Facebook page (Augustana Teaching Museum of Art).