Woman Made Gallery: Artisan Gallery

The mission of the Artisan Gallery is to honor women working in traditional and untraditional craft disciplines which is consistent with WMG’s mission by offering expanded exhibiting, marketing and selling opportunities to women artists and artisans. Our regular gallery format is to sponsor several juried theme exhibitions per year. This format is very successful and has provided thousands of women artists opportunities to exhibit. The policy of thematic exhibits however, can be restrictive to those artists and artisans whose body of work is primarily functional and/or decorative, or is unconcerned with pursuing content or a narrative.

The policy requires that all art and craft items must first be submitted to the Artisan Gallery committee for review. Accepted artists will then be contacted and asked to bring or send in their work. The reviews will be ongoing, so that we will always have fresh and new items to display and sell. There are no entry fees, but WMG membership is required of those artist who are accepted to have their work at the Artisan Gallery.

We are looking for original crafts that are well designed and fabricated by the artist. We encourage the submission of traditional, as well as non-traditional materials, techniques and processes. We do not exhibit drawing, painting, printmaking, mixed media or photography, unless they have been incorporated or used within the craft disciplines.

Jurying is ongoing, we are always looking for fine crafts. See our exhibition schedule below for specific calls for art.

The Artisan Gallery was established in Spring 2005 through the efforts of Mary Stoppert and Carmen M. Perez, who are co-curating all Artisan Gallery exhibitions.

Mary Stoppert is an artist and President of Stoppert Perez Ltd, an arts and antique business. Mary serves Woman Made Gallery as an Advisory Board member. Active in the Feminist Art Movement she is a founding member of Artemisia Gallery and the Chicago Women's Caucus for Art. She is a former Professor of Art at Northeastern Illinois University, where she taught sculpture and feminist art history and directed the art gallery.

Carmen M. Perez, a current WMG board member, is an artist, an Adult Educator for Chicago City Colleges and Vice-President of Stoppert Perez Ltd, an arts and antiques business. As part of WMG's Outreach Program Carmen is teaching classes at The Women's Treatment Center in Chicago. Carmen received her B.A in art from Northeastern Illinois University. She exhibits her jewelry, sculpture, and drawings in galleries, art and craft fairs, and expositions, in the U.S and Canada. Her work can be viewed at: www.linealatinaarte.com.

The Secret / June 27 - August 28, 2008

Open to all craft media decorative, functional or conceptual. There is nothing as titillating as a secret, because by its very nature a secret should not be revealed, which makes us want to know it even more. Artists are asked to submit work/s that somehow, someway embody or incorporate a secret. This secret should be able to be accessed or discovered by viewer interaction or exploration. It can take form in a physical or conceptual manner. Please email us with questions.

Entry Deadline: May 16, 2008
Artist Notifications: May 23, 2008
Receipt of Work: June 18-20, 2008 / 12-7pm

Object of Desire / Sept. 5 - Nov. 13, 2008

Open to all craft media decorative, functional, or conceptual. The concept of desire is a subjective one, so we expect everything from the sublime to the ridiculous. As implied by the title, there should be an object. Send with your entry a statement explaining what makes the work or each work, an object of desire.

Entry Deadline: July 11, 2008
Artist Notifications: July 18 2008
Receipt of Work: August 27-29, 2008 / 12-7pm

Send up to 10 images of available work in slide format or as jpgs in an email attachment. Be sure to include your name, dimensions of the work, material/ media, and retail price, not the artist’s price. Please note that there is no entry fee to submit work to the Artisan Gallery. Membership is required upon acceptance.

All exhibitions at Woman Made Gallery are open to entries from around the world. If accepted the work must be at Woman Made Gallery by delivery date for the particular exhibit. All shipping and/or custom fees to and from Woman Made Gallery are the responsibility of the artist.

(top right) partial view of Artisan Gallery (photo credit: Karen Hanmer)
(top left) 'Glow from the Subterranean Series' - glass by Nancy Otto
(center right) 'Jotun' - Raku, wire, beads - 10" x 7" x 3" by Wendy Deerly-Reese

The Artisan Gallery carries regularly featured fundraising items, like our HerStory Tshirts and Her Mark datebooks. To order please print out a mail-in order form or use our online secure form. You may also call the gallery at 312-738-0400 to charge your order by phone. Woman Made accepts American Express, VISA and MasterCard. Please allow two weeks for delivery.