Northwest women shine at the new Whatcom Museum of Art exhibit, which opened Saturday, April 24, at the Lightcatcher building.
Young and old, nobodies and legends, painters and sculptors, women and well, only women. The new exhibit at the Whatcom Museum of Art’s Lightcatcher building opened Saturday, April 24, and features Northwest women artists from 1880-2010.
The exhibit, “Show of Hands”, includes over 90 pieces created by 63 female artists from Washington, Oregon. and British Columbia. The collection’s display marks the centennial of women’s suffrage in Washington state, according to the Whatcom Museum website.
Many artistic mediums are included in the collection, from oil paintings to a paper-mâché rhinoceros. Lorna Libert, a visitor at the museum, noticed the variance in presentation.
“I like the combination of fine art, paintings and photography, sculpture and video. It’s all included,” she said.
The Lightcatcher enlightens Downtown
As the development of Downtown Bellingham is constantly changing the storefronts and skyline of the neighborhood, museum visitors said they are enthusiastic about the influence of the new Lightcatcher building that opened in November of last year.
Gesturing to Angie’s Bail Bonds and
“It’s nice to know that you don’t have to go to Seattle to see fine art anymore,” Frances said.
Cory Budden, the researching assistant for the art curator of the exhibit, said that this is the first time that art from so many places and times has been in Bellingham.
“It’s something Bellingham hasn’t seen on this scale before,” she said.
Museum volunteer Kathy Jacobson described the new museum as “cutting edge”. She said it has brought in different kinds of patrons in comparison to the old museum in City Hall, including more guests from Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia.
Not everyone is as pleased with the new museum taking over. Budden said that there has been some backlash from the elderly community about the closing of the City Hall location. The old museum is now only open for special events, as there is not enough funding to staff both locations.
Exhibit offers wide range of backgrounds
According to Budden, the celebration of women’s suffrage was just a starting point for Barbara Matilsky, curator of the exhibit. Instead Matilsky wanted to demonstrate Northwest women’s impact on the art world and to highlight the quality of their work, Budden said.
Matilsky did not just choose well-known artists, said Budden, but also wanted to include “nobodies” whose talent had yet to be portrayed. Some of the women did not start their artistic careers until their 60s, as their societal constraint called for them to do other things first, she said.
However, “None of it is outright feminist art,” Budden said.
The works vary in medium as well as intended message. From a tall stack of blankets labeled with personal stories to a sculpture made out of 16 mm film and rayon cord created to discuss stereotypes in the media, various thoughts are conveyed.
The art spans 130 years, allowing for a demonstration of the changing influence of women artists over time, Budden said. The pieces were found in Seattle and Portland galleries, with one discovered outside, next to a dumpster, she said.
Also to be seen at the Lightcatcher are “Expanded Horizons: Panoramic Photographs by J.W. Sandison” and “Outside the Home”, a collection of photographs depicting women in the workplace.
“Show of Hands” will be open until Aug. 8. A family event for the exhibit will be held on Saturday, May 8, from noon-4 p.m.
