By Ashlyn Beck | Staff Writer
The Martin Museum of Art recently introduced a new exhibit, In Pursuit of Light: Women in Photography, to reflect on women’s role in the art form.
Allison Chew, director of the Martin Museum of Art, said the exhibit focuses on how female artists relate to the concept of light — and that it was created in part as a nod to the solar eclipse taking place in April.
“It’s not a survey of feminist ideology. We’re not giving you a history lesson on feminism,” Chew said. “We just feel that these women in the show, their work embodies ideas of feminism.”
Mike Schuetz, collections manager for the Martin Museum of Art, said he thinks the exhibit is important for the fine arts community. According to Schuetz, concentrating on the work of women pushes the boundaries of convention — something the art community tends to do already.
“I find a lot of these, if not all of these images, very engaging. I find them very powerful,” Schuetz said. “It urges me to think outside of the normal boundaries where we all sometimes have a tendency to fall into as a matter of convenience.”
Chew said the exhibit contains a mixture of women as the photographers and women as the subjects, and Suda House’s content displays both. House is not only the photographer but also the subject in her own photos.
“Women are the creators. They’re the artists,” Chew said. “She’s not just some muse for some male artists. She is the creator. She is inserting herself into her work.”
Chew and Schuetz both said photography has been a male-dominated field in the past, and the exhibit is an attempt to show how far women have come.
According to Schuetz, in the art museum realm, women used to tend to be curators while men would be preparers. However, he said he has seen that change in his time in the field.
“There’s a certain evolution that starts to happen,” Schuetz said. “I guess it’s a little bit more pronounced within our community. I think it’s in our nature to challenge the status quo.”
After 20 years in the business, Chew said she is encouraged by the growth that has occurred and wants to show it in the In Pursuit of Light exhibit.
“In the visual art community, we’re probably moving a lot faster than the general public, but I think we’re not there yet,” Chew said. “I think that there’s still progress to be made.”
Schuetz said he did a lot of research on feminism while curating and writing the exhibit, and he wanted to include the ideas of his findings in the exhibit.
“In the process of researching for this show, I came across a great quote by Eleanor Roosevelt that says, ‘It’s only better for everybody when it’s better for everybody,’” Schuetz said.
While the art community can be perceived as being further ahead in gender inclusivity than other fields, Chew said there is still a long way to go.
“I think our main goal when we were really putting the finishing touches [was] to celebrate women in general,” Chew said. “These women are titans in their field.”
According to Chew and Schuetz, the exhibit was an opportunity to “shed some limelight” on women who excel in the field.
“As a woman in a leadership role, I think that it’s part of my job to reinforce and reinforce it and to just make sure that we’re thinking outside that old school box,” Chew said.
Chew said the exhibit should be inspiring for women in the arts, whether it is photography, journalism, film or digital media.
“We’re trying to make our space accessible to everybody,” Chew said. “We want everybody to feel comfortable coming in here. We want everybody to feel like their voice is being heard.”
