Gallery Exhibition Reflection

For my external activity, I chose to look through some online exhibitions on the website of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA). I looked through one exhibition that commemorated the founder of the museum, Wilhelmina Cole Holiday, which showcased images as well as background history about her and how she came to opening the museum. Though not directly involved with electronic media I found it interesting to see her journey in creating something that changes with the time and gives platform to women creators. As a woman who is transitioning to having the possibility of pursuing a career in art it, learning more about the art world and how boosting women artists was first perceived as shown in the cartoon slide gives me a sense of inspiration. 

 

I think taking a step back and observing the images and seeing how they changed with time was something that stood out to me as well. From a comic, as aforementioned, depicting the push back the museums opening had compared to the various pictures of world leaders with Wilhelmina Holiday in itself represent the growth of importance women in art have gained. It inspired many thoughts on politics to which I never drew much of a connection between politics and art as I did when looking through this exhibit. Now I am thinking that when I create art I want it to be something that has a social impact, more than just evoking emotion. These thoughts then lead me full circle to the installations we've been viewing in class. One thing that electric technologies and art allow you to do is give an art piece a conscious mind (or something representative as such) which then opens your piece up for more social and political commentary/conversation. 

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Just looking through the NMWA I hoped to find more technology and art tethered installations to look through but in a way technology is used differently for many art pieces. The more tactile sense my ICAM major and this class explores however is something that I wish to see more of, especially in the NMWA where struggles of women in STEM could be explored. Just one installation led me down a rabbit hole of thoughts so I am excited to act on these thoughts and lean into them more in the future.