Arts
Woman Power
by Pamela Portwood
hirty years ago, six women artists who didn’t have commercial-gallery representation decided to do something about it. They decided to start a cooperative gallery in Tucson, but things didn’t go exactly as planned. Actually, things went better than expected.
According to founding member Nancy Martin, the group started out by incorporating as a nonprofit organization under the name WomanKraft because “kraft” means “power” in German. At the time, the founders felt that one of the reasons they weren’t being taken seriously as artists was because they were women, so they wanted to create a space to empower women and to promote their art.
As Martin, who uses the name N. Skreko Martin professionally, says, “Little by little, we were all so busy doing this and that, we kind of neglected the business of actually finding a spot (for a gallery) and signing a lease and hiring a director.” They discovered that simply becoming an organization opened doors for them. Soon WomanKraft members were showing individually and as a group in alternative spaces and galleries. In 1979, WomanKraft became the umbrella organization for a large, multi-year, education project that was funded by federal funds from the Comprehensive Education and Training Act. As Martin says, “Little by little, we were all so busy doing this and that, we kind of neglected the business of actually finding a spot (for a gallery) and signing a lease and hiring a director.”
In 1986, WomanKraft opened its first gallery at the southeast corner of Congress St. and Sixth Ave. The building had been abandoned and was a mess, but owner Gladys Carroll offered them affordable rent in exchange for their rehabbing the space. WomanKraft had joined the Arts District.
When Carroll died, WomanKraft – like other arts groups – could no longer afford the higher rents that the new owners wanted for Arts District properties, according to Linn Lane, WomanKraft’s executive director. Faced with losing the sweat equity they had put into the Congress St. gallery, WomanKraft members decided that they had to buy their next space.
On Dec. 1, 1992, with a $5,000 down payment from one of the founders, WomanKraft bought “The Castle,” an abandoned, condemned, 1918 Victorian house at 388 S. Stone Ave. As Martin says, “This building literally was occupied by homeless people who were building fires with anything that was left to stay warm. There was no plumbing, no wiring, no glass in the windows.”
After extensive renovation, WomanKraft has a 7,840 square-foot facility that houses a gallery, classrooms, studios, offices and a flower garden, complete with six types of butterflies. They also have a guest suite upstairs and three business spaces downstairs that they rent to provide revenue for the organization. They offer classes through their School of the Arts.
As a nonprofit organization, WomanKraft has a board of directors, and Lane is the only paid staff member. Anyone who contributes $30 in annual dues can be a member, and there are now 91 members. Eleven working members regularly volunteer to help with the ongoing tasks of running the organization. Members who are interested in organizing exhibitions can make proposals to Gayle Swanbeck, the director of exhibits.
Fairly early on, WomanKraft expanded its membership to include men and its mission to include outreach to under-served populations: senior citizens, Hispanics, Native Americans and young artists. WomanKraft typically has thematic exhibitions that are open for submissions of artwork from members and non-members. For Lane, WomanKraft’s classes and community orientation helps people feel that they can be part of the creative world, and the organization gives new artists a chance to exhibit in a gallery setting.
The current exhibition “Glob-all? Young Polish Women Photograph Their World” was organized by Martin and curated by Warsaw photographer Katarzyna Majak. Martin met Majak when they were artists in residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. At the time, they came up with the idea of an exhibition at WomanKraft of photography by four 30-year-old women who had been born under Communism, came of age during the beginnings of democracy in Poland, and were now facing the realities of globalization.
Two years and much fundraising later, the result is an exhibition that reveals the photographers’ pursuit of a sense of identity and of a context for their lives in Poland’s contemporary world. In her “Partners” series, Violetta Kus uses English rather Polish words in color images that are about language and relationships. Katarzyna Fortuna’s “I AM” series features glossy, brilliantly-colored self-portraits of Fortuna sprawled on her sofa or bed with her face hidden.
Joanna Zastrozna’s large photographs are negative, color images of transformations and mystical visions in searing colors. Curator Katarzyna Majak contributes the only black-and-white photographs: small, quiet images of weathered walls and wonderful, fading signs, visions of a older Poland that is slipping away.
Martin spent two years working to bring “Glob-All?” to Tucson. Why? She had always wanted to do an exchange with Eastern Europe, but she also wanted “to shake things up.” According to Martin, that’s the WomanKraft model: if you want change, you can put energy into making it happen, and the organization is flexible enough for that.
“Glob-All? Young Polish Women Photograph Their World” will show July 3-Aug. 28 at WomanKraft, 388 S. Stone Ave. (629-9976). Two receptions will be held from 7:00-10:00 pm on July 3 and Aug. 7. Gallery hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 1:00-5:00pm. Curator Katarzyna Majak will give a talk at 6:00 pm with refreshments at 5:30 p.m. on July 27 at the Tucson-Pima Public Library, 101 N. Stone Ave.
