This newsletter is divided into the following articles. To read any one of these articles, please click on the text of the article title.

Letter from the Directors:

We had a wonderful summer, but autumn is our favorite season at the gallery. For reasons we can't quite put our fingers on, the crisp air and the turning colors of the leaves impel us to make art. Maybe it just fulfills our romantic ideas about artists in their studios, working in the early morning, sipping coffee, working late at night, sipping cocoa, working in the afternoon, taking a break to walk the dog and eat a croissant. Okay, we know the reality - doing snippets of your art between laundry, grocery shopping, your day job and the kids - but we can dream!

Fall seems so full of possibilities, like the start of something new. This fall begins our second year at the new space and we hope you will come and enjoy the cozy atmosphere of our gallery and the lovely park next door. Our programming will feature ANIMAL STORIES, an emotionally spirited exhibit. In the words of the juror, artist Kim Hoffmann, "this show has excitement, humor, and compassion, and is rich with long association and identification with the animal world."

In mid October the gallery will present GRIEF & LOSS. The content of the works range from death of a loved one and illness of a parent to the loss of a dream and the grief process itself. For this exhibit, we received funding from the Puffin Foundation Ltd. of Teaneck, New Jersey. This organization funds programs which "continue the dialogue between art and the lives of ordinary people". Woman Made is proud that all of our programming meets these criteria.

Before closing, we would like to update our readers on the Open Board Meeting held in August. We were delighted that many of our members came to ask questions, contribute ideas and find out how to become more involved in our organization. After a welcome and introductions, reports were given by each board member on the gallery history, programs, future exhibition schedule, fundraising and budget. One of the most exciting items to report was the increase in our budget by over 30%. The increase in funds allowed us to finally have a Woman Made Gallery sign made for our front lawn, purchase badly needed computer equipment, and payment of regular wages the gallery directors (us) from January 1 through June 30, 1998. This is the first time that has been possible in the six years we've been operating. We even put away $4000 to begin a building fund for our future vision of founding a Women's Art Museum in Chicago. All this was accomplished by focusing our efforts on fund-raising, grant writing and a membership drive. It was accomplished by support from all of you and we thank you!

Beate Minkovski, Executive Director, Janet Bloch, Gallery Director
& Pamela Callahan, Assistant Director

From Ramshackle Homes To High Art
By Anna H. Tyler

The passion of African-American artist Beverly Buchanan's art is fueled by the concept of dwellings referred to as home. Not homes commonly designed to enhance the status of middle class; not the type of homes classified as palatial mansions, but homes that pay respect to the poor.

For more than two decades, Beverly Buchanan has photographed, sculpted and painted scenes of rural southern domiciles that were built and inhabited by poor farmers and their families. Traditionally referred to as ramshackle homes or shacks, these structures were erected during a by-gone era. Today, shacks such as these can no longer be seen by travelers on the super highways of the New South. Never the less, they still exist along the back roads of farm country.

Born in Fuquay, N.C., Beverly Buchanan grew up on the campus of South Carolina State College in Orangeburg, where her father served as the Dean of the School of Agriculture. His position included advising farmers on crop care and other scientific methods of farming. While traveling around the countryside with her father, she encountered a variety of people and dwelling indigenous to the Deep South.

Beverly witnessed, first hand, the farmers' indomitable will to survive. Their ramshackle homes reflected the inability of poverty to suppress creativity. The houses captured her youthful imagination and eventually created a desire to replicate the houses in two and three-dimensional images that pay homage to the farmers' ingenuity.

Although fascination with these dwellings began during her childhood, creating them as "Shackworks" didn't occur until after she had created a number of minimal outdoor granite and cast-iron sculptures. As a child, she also enjoyed drawing, painting and spending time in the school's carpentry shop. So when the subject and style of her art changed, it was a natural progression.

Her large colorful drawings of shacks and the atmosphere around them, captivate one's senses through the use of oil sticks on paper. Three dimensional shacks sculptures range in size from pedestal pieces to nearly habitable structures in rough wood. With the exception of foamcore and boards, construction materials that she uses to create shack sculptures are often the same materials used by the original builders of these dwellings: scrap wood, license plates, tar paper and other found materials, which also form her supplies. The artist also constructs tables, chairs and shelves. When installed on the porch of a replica shack, they give the impression that real people live inside.

Beverly Buchanan's journey as an artist began long before she received an undergraduate degree in medical technology from Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina, and two masters degrees-one in Parasitology and the other in Public Health from Columbia University in New York City. Within that same decade, she began showing her work professionally.

Beverly Buchanan has garnered a national reputation through her art. Her works will be remembered for changing the status of poor people's homes to works of high art. In 1980, she received both a Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Endowment Grant. Her work has been widely exhibited and is owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in NYC, The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pa., and the High Museum, Atlanta, Georgia. The Steinbaum Krauss Gallery of New York City currently represents her.

words

hobie cat daze of sunlight on blue
©1998 Deborah Nal

I remember a day when I was ten.
We were on the water, sailing.
I was lying on the pontoon
of the hobie cat,
lying on top of the water.
I trailed my hands in it,
amazed it wasn't really blue
and that I could carry the sun
with my hands.
"Look!" my dad was shouting.
I couldn't hear over the sound of the wind,
but I could see
his arm, strong and certain, pointing.
Dolphins, dancing.

Portrait-A Lady
©1998 Deborah Nall

On her neck hangs a blue circle, broken
into geometric patterns-square, trapezoid, rhombus.

Crash of trash-can lids and rattling chains
as buses drive by, laboriously wending their way
along cobble-stoned streets, older than Christ.

Ladies dancing, set formations of unbending form,
Rigid whalebone, corsets binding until each breath
becomes precious.

The waiting room of the public health clinic, jars
with antiseptic suspension of time.

A haze of lilac, silver, blue tattoos of indigo hovers above, just hanging from her neck. Nothing makes sense, and only the opposite sides are equal.

Deborah Nall will be reading her poetry along with Deborah Hughes, Maureen Flannery and Kathleen Kirk at Woman Made Gallery on Sunday, November 8 from 2-4pm (free).

Exhibit at the Capitol

Please join us for the SILENT VICTIMS exhibition addressing domestic violence at the State Capitol in Springfield in October. The exhibit, curated by Woman Made directors, honors the 20th anniversary of the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence and will be on display from October 1 - 31, 1998. There will be a reception for the exhibition on October 14th at the State Library from 5:30 to 8 PM. The Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence is a statewide network of community-based programs providing services to victims of domestic violence, and working to prevent abuse through public education and public advocacy. You may write or call for more information or for tickets to the reception at ICADV, 730 East Vine, Room 109, Springfield, IL 62703, 217-789-2830. We hope you will all join us for this important exhibition in support of a much-needed organization.

Letters from some WMG members

From Tamaya Garner, Ontario, Canada: "I hope the (member's) show has been a success for all. Just having the opportunity to have people see new work is a thrill. We spend so much time alone in the studio."

From René Norman, Los Angeles, CA: "I just wanted to say thank you for allowing me to participate in such a wonderful opening. I was quite proud to fly in from L.A. to such a beautiful gallery with such friendly and professional faces. All my family and friends here were quite impressed."

From Kathleen Waterloo, River Forest, IL: "The Members' Show opening was fun and filled for such a rainy night! The evening went by quite fast. I had many surprise visitors and most were first-time visitors to your new space. All had only praises for your warm and friendly gallery. The show looked great, rooms were hopping, and I know that if there hadn't been a torrential rain outside, the crowd would have even been larger... The diversity of your exhibitions and the creative new ways to involve membership in your functions and fundraising is a strong indicator of the breadth of the Gallery's vision."

WMG Webpage

Now you can access information about upcoming shows, events, gallery happenings, membership and much more by visiting our web page at http://www.womanmade.org. You can e-mail us your questions, suggestions or comments at gallery@womanmade.org. We will try to answer all mail as soon as we can.

We thank Yvonne and Mason Galganov from Cambridge, Ontario who designed our web page and agreed to maintain it. Galganov & Associates is a successful web page design company. You can admire their own web page and many others by visiting their site at http://www.galganov.on.ca.

Still Looking for a Few Good Women

Woman Made is expanding its board of directors. We are looking for women who are committed feminists with time and skills they can contribute to our organization. Especially needed are a lawyer, an accountant and a printer. Please read our mission statement carefully and if you feel our purpose is worthy and you have skills to contribute, please send a cover letter and a resume to Margo Jeanchild, Board President, Woman Made Gallery, 1900 South Prairie Avenue, Chicago, IL 60616.

Wish List

1. wine and soft drinks for openings
2. cassette and/or CD player
3. office supplies
4. photo copier
5. 35mm slide projector
6. exhibit sponsors
7. memberships from every person on our mailing list so we can continue our services to women in the arts and buy all the things on our wish list.

These are the things we wish we had. We would be very thankful if you can help us get any of them. Please keep in mind that your donations are tax deductible.

Please and Thank You

We would like to thank all those who have become members since the last newsletter publication, and those who have donated money and/or their resources and time to help us:

Dora Aalbregtse, Karen Abbott, Anoush Bargamian, H. Marie Aragón, Carole Augustine, Frank Banker, Robin Baugher, Ina Greenfield Beierle, Sylvia Betts, Beverly Art Center, Marianne Biagi, Vincent and Shannon Blecha, Catherine Bolaños, Elizabeth Bowles, Ruth Aizuss Migdal-Brown, Julie Burleigh, Catherine Cajandig, Patrica Callahan, Caryl Carlsen, Maryann Carrero, Janina Ciezadlo, Liz Cochran, Sharon Cody, Lynne Mayo Collins, Robert and Margaret Corbett, Margaret Crary, Mary Ellen Croteau, Julia Cuba, Danielle, Gillian Lindahl Design, Rosemary Eller, Frederick Fechtner, Marcia Fensin, Karen Fishman, Claire Foreman, Barbara Gaines, Bruce Garner, Sean Gaughan, Bruce Goldberg, Meredith Grover, Sharon Harper, Warren Hazelton, Judith Hladik, Annalee Hultgren, Karyn Ila, Madelyn Iris, Valeria Jacobs, Daniel Jacobson, Melanie Jansen, Alison Witt Janssen, Margo Jeanchild, Anita Jenke, Lelde Alida Kalmit, Helga Krueger, Budkhi Kling, Susan Knill, Pat Lally, Amy Landecker, Ke Sook Lee, Janice Ledgerwood, Jennifer Kimbrough, Claudia Kleefeld, Roberta Levin, Janet Long, Marilyn Maas, Thaddeus MacKrillc, Nicole Maculuso, Nancy Maguire, Cindy Mathys, Marcy and friends, Cheryl McArthur, Dorothy McIntyre, Sally McQuillen, Steven Meyer, Barbara Mittman, Kendra Miller, Renny Carolyn Mills, Monaco, Mary Kay Moore, James Morgan, Cathleen Nagle, Dora Natella, National Vietnam Veterans Museum, Elizabeth Neubauer, Open Studio Project, Patricia Otto, Joan Pantsios, Carmen Perez, Gisèle Perreault , Mimi Peterson ,Cindy Pierce, Puppy Breath (Gina, Steven & Jan), Mary Kelly McPolin, Carmen Quintana, Eija Pick Reed, Karla Rindal, Gay Riseborough, Sheila Scacco, Karen Schuman, Seeding the Snow, Kyoko Shimizu, Patricia Smolen, Dian Sourelis, LizStaller, Kay Stanis, Suzanne Stafford, Mary Stoppert, Dorothy Stutzke, Karla Sunn, Ginny B. Sykes, Elizabeth Turek, Sondra Varco, Anne Vanker, David Vanker, Viola, Kyra Walsh, Jeff Walté, Maureen Warren, Mark Weissman, Marcia Welcome, David Wood.

A Special Thanks to

Member, Arlene Wanetick for her fabulous donation of a Macintosh computer and color monitor
ALSO, THANK YOU TO:
Shereen Boury for designing our newsletter.
Dan Fensin of Blackman Kallick Bartelstein, 300 South Riverside Plaza, Chicago 60606 for donating audit and tax services to us.
George Gehrken of Digital Network Development for computer maintenance.
Jim Maurer of Sir Speedy at 226 East Ontario, Chicago, IL 60611 (312-280-4781) for donating part of the printing costs of this newsletter.
Rebecca Targ for designing our exhibition invitations.

Preview of the "Loss & Grief" Exhibit

Now you may view some of the artwork exhibited in the "Loss and Grief" exhibit online: Click Here!

Note

If you have a disability and need any accommodation in order to be part of any of our events, please call 312-328-0038 one week prior to selected program.

Please note that Woman Made is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. In addition, the gallery will be closed from December 24 through January 21, 1998. Have a Happy New Year!

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