Puerto Rican Women in Arts
You don’t have to be an art expert to know that the women in arts around the world have been left out and neglected for decades because of the patriarchate and unfortunately Puerto Rico is no exception. In my 20 years in the art scene I have been witness to the disproportionate opportunities offered to women in the art scene.
Doing research, reading about Puerto Rican art history, little by little I have been discovering and was introduced to some of the women that have been long forgotten for unknown reasons. Innovative and creative artists that have left a mark in their time but when talking about art are not mentioned as often or frequently as their male counterparts. I understand that this is a small but necessary to render some much deserved honor to the Woman in Arts from our Island and the diaspora.
After months of researching, reading and investigating, I was able to find and contact over 280 artists and invited them to the exhibition. Some I was not able to contact, but with today's technology and social media the database created of over 365 living Puerto rican women in arts which is the most complete assembled to date.
This is not the first time a project like this that has been done, Mari Mater O’Neill’s publication titled Mujeres Artistas Protagonistas de los ochenta about women in arts in Puerto Rico in the 80’s was a good precedent for me to continue that work, the exhibition of the Asociación de mujeres artistas de Puerto Rico at Plaza Las Americas in 1989, the documentary produced by the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico titled El legado documental de la Asociación de mujeres artistas de Puerto Rico along with the exhibition Nuestro Autorretrato Mujeres Artistas de Puerto Rico in 1993, El-Status webpage with an amazing database created by Lisa Ladner and most recently Anarquía y Dialéctica en el Deseo 1,2 & 3 at the MAC and the 2015 article Viva la resistencia: Women artists in Puerto Rico and outside both by Raquel Torres Arzola are some of the building blocks for this exhibition.
With little resources and no budget but with eagerness to do justice to the women in arts who deserve recognition , Trailer Park Proyects in collaboration with El Schomburg has organized a once in a lifetime exhibition where we will show over 150 living and working Puerto Rican Women in Arts in the same walls under the same roof and it will happen here in Chicago.
To celebrate these artists, we selected March which is women’s month to present this exhibition which opens Friday March 7th, followed by an artist talk on March 8th the official international day of women, when we will sit down and have a discussion of Puerto Rican Woman in Arts throughout history and to talk about the challenges and stepping stones the industry has put on some of the participating artists.
In order to properly document this amazing unprecedented event we are trying to raise funds to create and publish a catalogue including the names of all participating artists and their information along with the other we could not contact or that couldn’t participate and create a document that will be used as an educational tool for generations to come as the directory for the women artists of Puerto Rico and the diaspora all with the help of Raquel Torres Arzola, Maria Josefina Melero, Anjanette Delgado, Aisha Perez, Melissa Ramos, Brenda Torres, Mariel Quinones and other collaborators and colleagues.
We will post photos of the exhibition and artwork during opening week.
