Chris Schultz
Bird Ross, left, Alice Traore and Yeonhee Cheong at the exhibit at the James Watrous Gallery.
Wisconsin ranks dead last in the nation for arts funding, spending just 18 cents per capita on the arts. In contrast, Minnesota pays about $9.67 per capita. This lack of funding creates financial barriers for Wisconsin artists — especially women. According to the National Museum of Women in the Arts, 46% of visual artists in the U.S. are women, but they earn just 74% of what male artists do.
Madison artists Brenda Baker and Bird Ross set out to help provide much-needed support for women artists in Dane County. In 2017 and 2018, while collaborating on an installation celebrating the state Capitol’s 100th anniversary, they were inspired by the history of Jean Pond Miner, the sculptor who created Wisconsin’s famous “Forward” statue.
“We wanted to replicate what happened in 1893, when women raised the equivalent of $150,000 to pay for this statue that was made by a woman and of a woman,” explains Baker. “We wanted to replicate that kind of enthusiasm that women had for women artists.”
After two years of hard work and fundraising, the Women Artists Forward Fund was born. This endowment fund, held at the Madison Community Foundation, supports two unrestricted prizes of $10,000 for women artists in Dane County every year.
“The most amazing and cool and wonderful thing is that we had this idea, we had enough people behind us, and so far, we’ve given away over $100,000,” says Ross. “The endowment is set for perpetuity. It’s taken flight.”
The 5-10-100: Women Artists Forward exhibit, currently on display at the James Watrous Gallery, features the first 10 artists to receive the Forward Art Prize. (The name comes from the fact that in the fund’s first five years it has awarded 10 artists a total of $100,000.) Each artist was asked to choose the pieces that showcased her best work.
Angelica Contreras is a 2020 award winner with two pieces in the show. “La Carga” (“the load” in English), is a richly layered mixed-media piece that shows a woman with her back to the viewer, balancing a basket on her head piled with symbols of what is traditionally considered “women’s work”: children, laundry, cooking supplies, etc. The figure seems to carry the outrageous burden effortlessly, without even lifting her hands, as she walks into a floral, gridded landscape.
The layers in her work mirror the layers of her own life, Contreras explains in her artist’s statement. “I was born in the U.S., but most of my childhood and adolescence was spent in Mexico. As time passed and I moved back to the U.S., I started to look back on my own roots, and its multiple layers. These layers became the subject of my visual work, through collaged materials and the juxtaposition of elements.”
The power of the 5-10-100 exhibit is evident in its diversity. Not only do the artists themselves come from a diversity of backgrounds — in terms of race, age and length of career — but the pieces themselves represent a wide variety of styles and mediums. Alongside Contreras’s mixed media pieces are paintings, sculptures, prints, textiles, and a work made entirely of insects.
“I’m thrilled at the diversity,” says Ross, who points out that she and Baker are not involved in the selection process for the Forward Art Prize. “I’m thrilled at the different media. I’m thrilled at the different visuals, the effects, the textures, the sizes. Everything.”
Most of all, Baker and Ross are proud of how the Women Artists Forward Fund has changed careers and lives in Dane County. For the exhibit, each winner was asked to write a statement about how the fund affected their career.
“With the Forward Art Prize, my peers have given me a very high honor,” writes 2023 prize recipient Mary Bero, who uses embroidery, painting and sculpture in her work. “If I had to use one word, it would be FREEDOM. Freedom to move forward with my art, unfettered from daily worries about getting a REAL job and continuing to explore more ideas. To MARCH FORWARD.”
Another 2023 winner, sculptor Babette Wainwright, writes that winning the prize “makes me feel alive, recognized, accepted, part of the community. As an older woman, it makes me feel rich. My stories now have value. For me, this prize means that now, people are seeing and hearing what I have to share.”
After spending many years working to establish the fund, Baker and Ross are excited to partner with the Arts + Literature Laboratory, which is taking over the administration of the fund. “We want to both get back to doing more of our artwork and less administration,” Baker says.
Still, the founders hope to continue growing the award. “We would like to find some legacy donors so that the fund can continue to grow into the future,” Baker says. If possible, the pair would love to see more artists receive grants each year.
Jurors are currently deliberating on the 2024 Forward Art Prize, and winners will be announced in the fall. In the meantime, there’s still time to see the 5-10-100 exhibit , which runs through Aug. 4 at the Watrous Gallery on the third floor of the Overture Center. Admission is free, and regular gallery hours are noon-6 p.m. Thursday-Friday and noon-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.
