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Pen and Brush, the venerable 121-year old arts organization, announces their inaugural visual arts show,“Domesticity Revisited,” and the publication of two novellas, a short story and three poems on its website and publishing platform this October.
Over the course of the past three years, the organization has undergone a re-launch of its historic mission to create a platform for women in the visual and literary arts by showcasing high-quality, professional work to collectors, curators, editors, agents, publishers, and the public in a way that will have a real impact on the marketplace. During this time, Pen and Brush has also undergone a physical transformation, moving from their longtime former headquarters in Greenwich Village to a 5,500 square foot, state-of-the-art gallery space at 29 East 22nd Street. Here the organization will continue to focus on advocacy, mentoring, and the presentation of excellent work created by women artists and writers.
As part of its programming overhaul, the Pen and Brush executive team surveyed the evolving art and literary landscapes to adapt best practices from curatorial and publishing models. The result: a vetting system that offers curators the chance to select work each believes has merit and is deserving of exposure, doing away with the constraints of the juried model and separating Pen and Brush from the entire selection process. After securing eleven influencers from the art and publishing worlds to serve as curators, the organization opened a rolling call for submission via their re-designed website.
On October 8, Pen and Brush will open “Domesticity Revisited,” a group show featuring four international contemporary artists: Jee Hee Kang; Yun Koung Shin; Tricia Wright; and Michela Martello, as curated by Rick Kinsel (Executive Director, The Vilcek Foundation). These four artists present pieces that deal with traditional notions of domesticity that are spiritual and biographical in orientation, relating to the objects, ideas and sensations around the theme of home. According to Kinsel,“they seem to be pointing us, in visual terms, toward a new world, one more generous in its allowance of all artists male and female to enjoy greater freedom, flexibility, and opportunities in the practice of their art.”
On October 6, Pen and Brush will debut their new ePublishing platform, available on the organization's website and through Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble Nook, iBooks, and Kobo.As the organization’s first publications since the re-launch, this grouping includes: Love’s Wilderness, a novella by Enid Harlow, curated by Carey Salerno (Executive Editor, Alice James Books); Castle Peak, a short story by Mina Samuels, curated by Joni Evans (Founding Member and CEO of wowOwow.com; former President and Publisher of Simon & Schuster and Publisher at Random House); After Emily Dickenson; Yo Voy; Coral Lips Punch Drunk, three poems by Lauren Amalia Redding, curated by Kate Angus (Founding Editor, Augury Books); and In the Foam of the Blue Waves, a novella by Kathleen Wakefield, also curated by Kate Angus.
“Gender continues to be a negative signifier of merit and value in the worlds of art and publishing,” explains Pen and Brush Executive Director Janice Sands. “With our revolutionary visual and literary arts programming model and the opening of our new space we aim to put forth a quantity and variety of outstanding work by women artists. We feel that this approach will not only serve to debunk common misconceptions, but also provide these women with access to the higher echelons of the primary and secondary market in numbers that matter.”
Sands adds,“We do not believe women produce better work than men, nor do we believe all work produced by women is great or even good. What we do believe is that all work should be judged upon its merit, not the gender of its maker.”
About Pen and Brush
We at Pen and Brush strongly support the premise that art and literature are vital aspects of the human experience. We also believe that art and literature created by women deserves to be recognized and valued on its merit not judged by the gender of the maker.
Pen and Brush provides a platform to showcase the work of excellent female artists and writers to a broader audience with the ultimate goal of effecting real change within the marketplace. We encourage and mentor emerging professionals and aim to expose the stereotypes and misconceptions that perpetuate gender-based exclusion, lack of recognition and the devaluation of skill that is still experienced by women in the arts.
To achieve this, we have specifically designed our new facilities to accommodate the exhibition of all forms of visual arts. We will also electronically publish literary fiction and poetry under our imprint. In this way we will expose the work of women artists and writers to the public and a wide variety of influencers including scholars, collectors, curators, gallerists, agents, and publishers.
What’s more, our vetting process for selecting work provides a pipeline to influencers capable of advocating for the creative output of women in the arts. We believe this strategy can have a tangible and positive impact on the careers of professional female artists and writers and, ultimately, secure a more comprehensive inclusion of women’s voices in the canons of art and literature.
For over 121 years, Pen and Brush (penandbrush.org) has been the only international nonprofit organization offering an outlet for women in both the literary and visual arts in the city of New York. Learn more about our history and the organization's extraordinary artists, writers, and advocates through our historic timeline.
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