Women Artists Community – An Xperience Interview

Women Artists Community – An Xperience Interview – by Liam Sweeny.

RRX: Tell me a little bit about Women Artists Community, so we can get a sense of what you’re doing and what you’re involved in.

Mary K: We started by bumping into each other at a show we were exhibiting in, and Mary (Wheeler) invited me to stop into her house and visit when we realized we live within walking distance of each other in Cohoes, which we didn’t know. So I came over and we discussed the need for creative women to build connections, to be supportive of each other, and to overcome the underrepresentation that we feel we have in galleries. So that’s how we started WAC, Women Artists Community. And that was February 2025. We started with a winter salon meeting where people brought their works and talked about their role in the arts. And since then, we’ve expanded into some planned group exhibitions.

RRX: When you say that women are underrepresented in art galleries, can you talk about that a little bit? What do you think are some of the reasons that women aren’t represented enough? Is it not enough women owners of galleries, or do you think that there are other factors involved? ‘Cause a lot of people don’t really go to galleries, so they wouldn’t know.

Mary W: I think women have learned to take a backseat. We’re not as out there and pushy as men tend to be. I think that it was a fairly male-dominated situation from the beginning. When you start looking back in history, how many women artists do you come up with? I think that a lot of men already had the leg up starting out way before we were even born. I think that has continued. Most of the galleries around here have women in them, that’s not to be misunderstood by people reading. Every once in a while, they will have a woman’s show all through the year, maybe one. There’s a lot of that. So we’re trying to have women get together and say, this is a group, this is a show, this is all women, and we are trying to go in droves to each one of our shows that we have procured on our own, saying we are here to show up for the women. You got to start seeing us. And I think also with everything that’s happened in the political climate, we feel very underrated. This is another reason why this has grown now as a movement.

RRX: When you’re talking about the galleries and the Women Artists Community, you’re thinking visual art. Is this just a visual art thing, or is this women writers? Is this all aspects of creatives like women writers, women musicians, women artists, or is this really focused more on the visual art?

MK: We have some members that relate to the arts in different ways other than visually. We have a couple of writers. We have poets. We have potters, we have some 3D people and some fabric or textile artists. Our goal is to be as inclusive as possible and if you’re in the arts in some way, we welcome you into the group.

RRX: We talked about, you know, the barriers for women in galleries, but do you think women have other barriers in general, women coming into the arts? What are some of the barriers that you think women have more than men, from the perspective of, say, a kid that wants to be an artist and go from that to actually being an artist, and actually putting work together that’s gonna be commercially sold? Do you think there are more obstacles for women to enter into that field? Do you think they are promoted by their parents as much as maybe a boy, or do you think that neither are actually promoted by the parents enough?

MW: I believe parents are either going to support it or not support it; it doesn’t matter the gender. It also has to do with the person. They’re either going to strive to become more or they’re not. And I don’t think that has to do with a lot of gender, but what I do know for a fact is that women have to put something in a backseat because we are way too responsible for the families and the households and the marriages and the children and the children’s needs, even to the point of taking your kids to their art classes by setting your art aside. We actually have had several women who are in the group reaching out to us with that very same frustration of how they can pursue their art now that they’re at retirement age. They think this is the time that they’re going to sit down and be able to work on their art and come to meetings like this that we only hold once a month. And they can’t find the time because their family obligations are pushing forward. Now we 100% do not want to separate that. We as women believe family first, but this is just some of the struggles women have in trying to get their art career off the ground.

RRX: I have a tough question. I think it might be a tough question. Art grows in pressure. So women have to give things up to pursue their art, or they may have to pursue their art through having to take care of children and not being able to just dedicate their entire lives to art in a lot of cases. Do you think the art that actually comes out is more powerful or likely to be more powerful because it’s kind of “cooked in pressure”?

Both: Definitely, absolutely, we both agree.

MW: I think that it also has a bigger range. We have more emotions, and we encounter more setbacks. So I think our art is better.

RRX: So, how do you have Women Artists Community set up? Is it based in a single place, or do you have a more spread-out collection of people?

MK: At the moment, we’re operating with basically two strands of membership. One is a virtual presence on Facebook and Instagram, which has no geographical limit to membership. And then we also have a core local group of committed artists who are involved in staging exhibitions to come to the monthly meetings and make their wishes known to the group, and they’re helping us put everything together. So there are kind of like two ways to go into membership with us … As I said, we’re inclusive. We seek diverse members to join us, and we think of it as a movement, not just a group that will continue to grow.

RRX: What can the Capital Region local communities do to help you get to the point that you have in your mind’s eye where you want to be? What can the local region do to help you get there? ‘Cause I think they would want to.

MW: By helping us have spaces to show and spaces to gather in. Those are the two things that I think would be the biggest help.

MK: I think space is a priority. We have been working kind of night and day on trying to get into places that would accommodate all our members for group shows. So, just available space at a reasonable rate. Because we’re bootstrapping this, you know? We’re brand new, and it’s the two of us in charge, and we’re doing it all. But we need support in the larger area for sure.

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