Women's Art Resources of Minnesota (WARM) is a women's art organization based in the U.S. state of

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

. It was founded in 1976 as Women's Art Registry of Minnesota, a

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 ...

artist collective An artist collective is an initiative that is the result of a group of artists working together, usually under their own management, towards shared aims. The aims of an artist collective can include almost anything that is relevant to the need ...

. The organization ran the influential WARM Gallery in downtown Minneapolis from 1976 to 1991.

History

Early years

WARM has its origins in the

feminist art movement The feminist art movement refers to the efforts and accomplishments of feminists internationally to produce art that reflects women's lives and experiences, as well as to change the foundation for the production and perception of contemporary ar ...

of the early 1970s. Gatherings in the studios and homes of

women artists The absence of women from the canon of Western culture, Western Art history, art has been a subject of inquiry and reconsideration since the early 1970s. Linda Nochlin's influential 1971 essay, "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?, Why ...

in the

Twin Cities Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in statu ...

led to the beginning of the Women's Art Registry of Minnesota in the winter of 1973 with the establishment of a slide registry of women artists from Minnesota by Lynn Lockie Warkov and Susan Fiene. The group organized their own exhibitions and gathered statistics on the representation of women in the

Minneapolis Institute of Art The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United State ...

and the

Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in the United States and, t ...

. That year artist

Judy Chicago Judy Chicago (born Judith Sylvia Cohen; July 20, 1939) is an American feminist artist, art educator, and writer known for her large collaborative art installation pieces about birth and creation images, which examine the role of women in history ...

spoke at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

and the College of St. Catherine about her

Feminist Art Program The Feminist Art Program (FAP) was a college-level art program for women developed in 1970 by artist Judy Chicago and continued by artists Rita Yokoi, Miriam Schapiro, and others. The FAP began at Fresno State College, as a way to address gender in ...

at the

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both ...

. The next year Chicago, Miriam Shapiro, and educators from the College of St. Catherine laid the foundations for WARM. At the Mid-west Women's Artists' Conference in Michigan in 1975, attendees from Minneapolis learned about the practicalities of maintaining a cooperatively run gallery. The Women's Art Registry of Minnesota was founded as a

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

by 37

in 1976. It was the first feminist art cooperative in Minnesota. The group was non-hierarchical, with all members serving on the organization's governing body. They registered as a non-profit on January 28, 1976. They limited the membership to 40 people, who were required to pay dues, attend monthly meetings, and spend at least 300 hours annually on activities related to the organization and gallery.

WARM Gallery (1976–1991)

In 1976 the WARM collective established WARM: A Women's Collective Artspace (also known as the WARM Gallery) in a former millinery store in Minneapolis'

Warehouse District This is a list of notable warehouse districts. A warehouse district or warehouse row is an area found in many urban setting known for being the current or former location of numerous warehouses. Logistically, warehouses are often located in indust ...

in the Wyman Building at 414 First Avenue North. In 1972 New York City's

A.I.R. Gallery A.I.R. Gallery (Artists in Residence) is the first all female artists cooperative gallery in the United States. It was founded in 1972 with the objective of providing a professional and permanent exhibition space for women artists during a time i ...

had become the first women's cooperative gallery in the United States. WARM Gallery was one of number of cooperative artist galleries established by women using A.I.R. as a model. The WARM Gallery hosted solo and group exhibitions by invited women artists and from its membership. Visiting artists at the gallery included the painters

Grace Hartigan Grace Hartigan (March 28, 1922 – November 15, 2008) was an American Abstract Expressionist painter and a significant member of the vibrant New York School of the 1950s and 1960s. Her circle of friends, who frequently inspired one another in t ...

Alice Neel Alice Neel (January 28, 1900 – October 13, 1984) was an American visual artist, who was known for her portraits depicting friends, family, lovers, poets, artists, and strangers. Her paintings have an expressionistic use of line and color, psyc ...

Joan Semmel Joan Semmel (born October 19, 1932) is an American feminist painter, professor, and writer. She is best known for her large scale realistic nude self portraits as seen from her perspective looking down. Education and political involvement Semmel ...

and

Joan Snyder Joan Snyder (born April 16, 1940) is an American Painting, painter from New York City, New York. She is a MacArthur Fellows Program, MacArthur Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellow, and a National Endowment for the Arts, National End ...

. WARM began offering the Feminist Perspectives monthly lecture series in 1980. The program was directed by Joyce Lyon and succeeded in bringing art critics and historians such as

Linda Nochlin Linda Nochlin (''née'' Weinberg; January 30, 1931 – October 29, 2017) was an American art historian, Lila Acheson Wallace Professor Emerita of Modern Art at New York University Institute of Fine Arts, and writer. As a prominent feminist art h ...

Robin Morgan Robin Morgan (born January 29, 1941) is an American poet, writer, activist, journalist, lecturer and former child actor. Since the early 1960s, she has been a key radical feminist member of the American Women's Movement, and a leader in the ...

Lucy Lippard Lucy Rowland Lippard (born April 14, 1937) is an American writer, art critic, activist, and curator. Lippard was among the first writers to argue for the " dematerialization" at work in conceptual art and was an early champion of feminist art. S ...

, and

Germaine Greer Germaine Greer (; born 29 January 1939) is an Australian writer and public intellectual, regarded as one of the major voices of the radical feminist movement in the latter half of the 20th century. Specializing in English and women's literatu ...

through the group's visiting artists program. The series continued until 1984. In 1980 the WARM newsletter expanded to the quarterly ''WARM Journal''. Designed by

Patricia Olson Patricia Olson (born 1951) is an American graphic designer, painter, feminist artist, and educator whose works are categorized as figurative art. Olson was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She earned her B.A. in studio art from Macal ...

, the periodical featured fiction and poetry from Minnesota women in addition to articles on art. The journal's editorial committee was chaired by Susan McDonald, Alice Towle, Marty Nash and Elizabeth Erickson until 1985 when Phyllis Wiener took over. By 1985 the journal's circulation had risen to nearly 5000. Informed by

cultural feminism Cultural feminism, the view that there is a "female nature" or "female essence", attempts to revalue and redefine attributes ascribed to femaleness. It is also used to describe theories that commend innate differences between women and men. Cultu ...

, ''WARM Journal'' was one of the few interdisciplinary publications in the area and for a time it was the only art magazine published regularly in the Twin Cities. The ''WARM Journal'' ceased publication in 1987. Catherine Jordan was hired as the gallery's coordinator in 1981. She became executive director of WARM the following year. The collective established the WARM Mentor Program in 1982. Emerging artists are paired with professionals for the two-year program. A more intensive program, the WARM Mentor Intensive Program, lasts one to three months. In October 1986, WARM hosted a national conference at the Minneapolis Plaza Hotel called "The Contemporary Women in the Visual Arts". The conference featured speakers such as

Wilhelmina Holladay Wilhelmina Cole Holladay (née Cole; October 10, 1922 – March 6, 2021) was an American art collector and patron. She was the co-founder of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2006. Early lif ...

, artist

June Wayne June Claire Wayne (March 7, 1918 – August 23, 2011) was an American painter, printmaker, tapestry innovator, educator, and activist. She founded Tamarind Lithography Workshop (1960–1970), a then California-based nonprofit print shop dedicated ...

, and Janet Wolff. WARM Gallery and other galleries in the Twin Cities featured women artists during the conference. WARM also sponsored a traveling exhibition featuring artist

Harmony Hammond Harmony Hammond (born February 8, 1944 in Hometown, Illinois) is an American artist, activist, curator, and writer. She was a prominent figure in the founding of the feminist art movement in 1970's New York. Early life and education Harmony Ha ...

. Following the conference, WARM found itself in significant debt. Shortly after the opening of the nearby

Target Center Target Center is a multi-purpose arena located in Minneapolis that opened in 1990. It hosts major family shows, concerts, sporting events, graduations and private events. Target Corporation, founded and headquartered in Minneapolis since 1902, ...

sports complex in October 1990, parking and traffic problems worsened and the gallery experienced a decline in visitors. Unable to keep up with rising rents, the board made a decision to close WARM Gallery in January 1991. They retained the non-profit and the Mentor Program, moving to an office on University Avenue in

St. Paul Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...

before relocating to the Women's Building on Rice Street.

Post-gallery era

The Women's Art Registry of Minnesota continues to hold exhibitions for its members. In addition to its educational and professional programs, WARM maintains an online art registry of local and regional artists and publishes an e-newsletter. WARM changed its name to Women's Art Resources of Minnesota in 2010.

Legacy

The WARM Gallery provided an important exhibition space outside of mainstream venues for Minnesota women artists. It was a catalyst for economic renewal in the Warehouse District and played an important role in the development of arts in Minneapolis. WARM served as a key Midwestern node in the early

feminist art movement in the United States The feminist art movement in the United States began in the early 1970s and sought to promote the study, creation, understanding and promotion of women's art. First-generation feminist artists include Judy Chicago, Miriam Schapiro, Suzanne Lac ...

. The University of Minnesota's

Weisman Art Museum The Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum is an art museum at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded in 1934 as University Gallery, the museum was originally housed in an upper floor of the university's Northrop Auditorium. In 19 ...

held an exhibition of work from 12 of WARM's long-term members in 2006. The exhibition was documented in Joanna Inglot's 2007 book ''WARM: A Feminist Art Collective in Minnesota''. The book includes a history of WARM and entries for each of the 12 artists featured in the exhibition. On WARM's 40-year anniversary in 2013, exhibitions were held at both the University of Minnesota's Katherine E. Nash Gallery and Robbin Gallery. The

Minnesota Historical Society The Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) is a nonprofit educational and cultural institution dedicated to preserving the history of the U.S. state of Minnesota. It was founded by the territorial legislature in 1849, almost a decade before statehoo ...

holds records and media related to WARM in its collections.

Selected members

Harriet Bart Harriet Bart is a Minneapolis based conceptual artist, known for her objects, installations, and artists books. Early life Harriet Bart was born in 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota, and earned a degree in textiles from the University of Minnesota in 197 ...

, conceptual artist *

Hazel Belvo Hazel Belvo is an American painter, educator and women's art advocate. Belvo was born in 1934 and grew up on a farm in Centerville, Ohio. She attended Dayton Art Institute. She taught art at St. Paul Academy. She spent her summers in Grand Porta ...

, painter and draftswoman *

Sally Brown Sally Brown is a fictional character in the comic strip ''Peanuts'' by Charles Schulz. She is the younger sister of main character Charlie Brown. She was first mentioned in May 1959 and throughout a long series of strips before her first appeara ...

, draftswoman *

Elizabeth Erickson Elizabeth Erickson (born 1942) is an American painter, feminist artist, poet, and educator. Her style of painting tends to gestural abstraction and the themes she explores occupy "the territories of ancient myth, religion, and spiritual feminism ...

, painter * Carole Fisher, installation artist * Linda Gammell, photographer *

Vesna Kittelson Vesna Krezich Kittelson is a Croatian American painter. Kittelson was born in Bosnia and Herzegovina and grew up in Split, Croatia. Kittelson received her B.A. in law from the University of Split in 1970. She moved to the United States and attend ...

, painter * Joyce Lyon, draftswoman and landscape artist * Susan McDonald, painter and printmaker *

, painter and graphic designer * Judith Roode, figure drawings, mentor, teacher * Sandra Menefee Taylor, painter, sculptor and performance artist * Jantje Visscher, painter and printmaker

Notes

References

External links

Women's Art Resources of MinnesotaFinding aid for the Women's Art Registry of Minnesota Records
Minnesota Historical Society {{Feminist art movement in the United States 1976 establishments in Minnesota Art galleries established in 1976 Art galleries disestablished in 1991 Art museums and galleries in Minnesota Arts organizations established in 1976 Arts organizations based in Minneapolis Artist cooperatives in the United States Feminist art organizations in the United States Women in Minnesota