Soon after the Presidential election this past November, I saw a post on Facebook from two women in Queens, NY who were organizing a Nasty Women Art Exhibit and Fundraiser.
The exhibit was in response to the threat Trumps presidency would have on women’s rights and dignity.
They asked if people were interested in organizing satellite exhibits in other cities in the US and when I read that I immediately thought, “why not” I have a number of friends who are artists and they would probably love to do something like this.
So I replied to the post and said “YES please send me more info!”
Within days I was sending out an email to all of the artists I know in my area and I began organizing my very first Art Exhibit! For those of you who read my “How I Became A Blogger” post, you know that I am a risk taker and will try anything once.
I had never organized an exhibit before and knew nothing about how to do it but my gut said “do it anyway!”
This was an opportunity for me to do two things I am passionate about: 1. building community and 2. making a contribution to the world. I was filled with excitement that I was charting new territory and was up for the challenge.
When I made the decision to move forward I also felt a connection to my parents and knew they would be proud of my efforts. They were activists and organizers and I know if they were alive today they would have been protesting this election and doing all they could to fund raise to support organizations to help stop Trumps agenda.
My original goal was to get 50 artists to donate artwork for the exhibit. The exhibit is two weeks away and I am happy to say that I have surpassed my goal and now have over 70 artists contributing!
I am so grateful for the generous support I have received from the artists at the Leverett Crafts & Arts Center for agreeing to host the event and for all the help they have given me getting this show off the ground from publicizing the event on their website, creating the flyer for it, collecting the artwork and hanging it for the exhibit.
I could not have done this without them!
I am so glad I didn’t let fear get in my way and trusted my first impulse to do this. Taking this project on has strengthened my confidence in myself and shown me that following my passion is a positive thing to do because it brings more joy into my life and more good into the world!
Photo of “Distressed” by Robin Becker
