Whose Public? Addressing the Gender Imbalance in Public Art


Public art has long been the province of men, as its creators, its patrons, and, most visibly, its subjects. When women did appear in public art, they were most often represented as symbolic, allegorical characters rather than real-life women. However, the recent movement to remove Confederate Monuments and the rise of the #MeToo movement have led to a widespread reconsideration of who is and is not represented in our public landscapes. These social movements have begun to tip the balance back in favor of women, by engaging governments, public art organizations, and artists in imagining new ways of ameliorating the gender imbalance. They have begun to draw upon a diversity of practices, ranging from street art and public performances to traditional portrait statuary. This session considers the historical dearth of women in public art, and also past and current efforts to rebalance that gender representation, by inviting papers addressing innovative approaches to the subject through case studies, historicized investigations and theoretical arguments. Transnational and intersectional perspectives are highly encouraged, as are proposals from public art practitioners, commissioners, artists, and curators. This panel aims to advance the intersecting discourses of public art and gender by highlighting the evolving ways in which visual representations of women have been incorporated into our increasingly contested public sphere.

Field of Study:
Africa
North America
Asia
Canada
Europe

Chair:
Sierra Rooney,University of Wisconsin-La Crosse - r.sierra.rooney@gmail.com

Laurie Jo Reynolds’ anti-carceral feminist art
Albert Stabler, Appalachian State University