The Woman Made Gallery (WMG) is a
Chicago based
non-profit gallery known for elevating women and non-binary artists through exhibitions, membership, and community dialogue programs. Woman Made's vision is to ensure the equal placement of women's
art in the art world. WMG is Chicago's longest-operating
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
art gallery and one of the leading organizations promoting women's art in the US.
Founded in 1992, by Kelly Hensen and Beate Minkovski, Woman Made Gallery has hosted nearly 400
exhibitions and has exhibited more than 9,000 women artists.
The gallery has been associated with artists like
Judy Chicago and
Faith Ringgold
Faith Ringgold (born October 8, 1930 in Harlem, New York City) is an American painter, writer, mixed media sculptor, and performance artist, best known for her narrative quilts.
Early life
Faith Ringgold was born the youngest of three child ...
.
Development
Woman Made Gallery was originally housed in
Ravenswood Manor
The Ravenswood Manor Historic District is a historic district in the Albany Park community area of North Side, Chicago, Illinois. It is bordered by the Chicago River on the East, and by the alley south of Lawrence Avenue on the North, Sacra ...
on Chicago's Northside (4646 N Rockwell St), from 1992 until August 1997. WMG then moved to Prairie Avenue (1900 S. Prairie Ave), south of downtown Chicago from 1997-2003. This location was more centrally located and closer to more diverse neighborhoods of people. The new location also had more exhibition space and allowed WMG to display works form their Permanent Collection. In early 2003 WMG moved again to
Humboldt Park (2418 W Bloomingdale Ave)), where they remained until November 2005. WMG moved to 685 N. Milwaukee Ave, nearby to
Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art and the former location of ARC Gallery. This space is 3,000 square feet with two levels. In 2017, WMG moved to its current location at Lacuna Lofts (2150 S. Canalport Ave, Suite 4A3)
Mission
The gallery's founder, Beate Minkovski, stated in an interview that the gallery's priority is to provide a platform for women artists' perspective. She added, “Woman Made fills a niche that is important, not just now, but also for the future,” states Minkovski. “It’s almost like saying, African American galleries: are they necessary or not? Will they ever not be necessary? When men say, ‘Why? It’s all the same? Why can’t I show my work?’ we used to say ‘You have the whole world where you can show.’”
Logo
WMG's current
logo was designed in 2012 by a team at Firebelly University. The logo, an intertwined "W" and "M" symbolizes how women in the arts support one another.
References
External links
*
* ''Chicago Art Magazine''
"ARC & Woman Made Gallery on the Issue of Feminism"
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Art museums and galleries in Chicago
Art galleries established in 1992