Beth Skogen
Brenda Baker, left, and Bird Ross near the replica of “Forward” at the state Capitol.
When artists Brenda Baker and Bird Ross stumbled upon the history of Jean Pond Miner, the 27-year-old sculptor who created the iconic “Forward” statue housed in the lobby of the Wisconsin Historical Society (and replicated in front of the state Capitol), they hatched an ambitious plan to support women artists in Dane County.
After two years of community outreach and tons of sweat equity, Baker and Ross launched the Women Artists Forward Fund, an endowment held at Madison Community Foundation, currently worth $350,000. The fund will award $10,000 Forward Art Prizes to two women artists at a ceremony at the Chazen Museum in November. The artists see this endowment as an extension of Miner’s work, and one they hope will continue into perpetuity.
Baker and Ross, who are both working artists, say Wisconsin does a dismal job of supporting the arts. They know a number of artists who have left the state for better opportunities elsewhere. Baker points to the most recent study by the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies that reports Wisconsin is tied with Georgia for having the lowest per capita spending for the arts. That adds up to 14 cents per capita as compared to Minnesota, which contributes $7.26 per capita.
“If we really believe art and culture is what fuels our souls and community, and brings people to our community, we should be investing more money in it. Not just in organizations, but the individuals that are making the art,” says Baker.
Baker and Bird’s “9 Women Being Forward.”
The idea for this ambitious project was sparked while Baker and Bird researched subjects for their collaborative installation that was part of the 2017-18 “Capitol at 100” exhibit curated by Martha Glowacki at the Overture Center. Their contribution, “Being Forward,” featured a black and white photograph of Miner sculpting “Forward,” surrounded by black and white photographs they captured of 150 women local artists and philanthropists dressed and posed as her muse.
“We wanted to represent Capitol workers who were not visible, who are hard to find in history books,” says Baker. “But there was no historical information about women or behind-the-scenes immigrants, custodians or working people who don’t get any recognition. When we came across the history of ‘Forward’ we were overwhelmed.”
What they unearthed was a brief history of how Miner, a Wisconsin-born artist who lived in Madison after graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, sculpted “Forward” during the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. They learned that Wisconsin women provided financial support for Miner’s work and have continued to support its restoration and replacement for more than 126 years.
“The idea of women supporting women and being supportive of individual women artists was so intriguing to us we decided that was the piece we wanted to pursue,” says Baker.
“This was the first time women exhibitors were given equal footing with men at the World’s Fair, and Miner got encouragement and funding from the ladies of a Janesville afternoon tea club (now the Janesville Women’s Club) who raised $6,000, the equivalent of $155,000 today, to have it created and bronzed. And then they petitioned to have it put on the Capitol lawn.”
The Janesville women, joined by more from Madison, had raised enough funds for long-term preservation, but by 1995, after a century of exposure and deterioration, there was no choice but to preserve the bronze figure by removing it from the elements. Once again, a group of Wisconsin women, this time led by then Wisconsin First Lady Sue Ann Thompson and businesswoman Camille Haney, raised $65,000 to have the fragile “Forward” figure moved to its current site and a bronze replica cast and displayed at the State Street corner of the Square.
“We view the whole thing as our art piece, a social practice piece,” says Ross. “We started out thinking we have to tell this story, we want people to know about this story, but then we also knew we wanted it to be something more.”
Baker and Bird believed that the awards should be free of cumbersome applications and limitations on how the funds could be used. They first ran the idea past Tom Linfield, director of community impact for Madison Community Foundation. Linfield suggested they explore the level of interest in the philanthropic community. So they met with funding heavyweights — complete strangers who became regular advisors and funders.
Although they were initially hoping to raise $100,000, they were told to set their sights higher, to $300,000. “I anticipated meeting with them once, but I was so blown away by the two of them, they are equally wonderful,” says Jane Coleman, a local philanthropist and founder of A Fund for Women. “We found ourselves meeting again and again.”
It has taken two years to raise the current balance. An additional $60,000 was gifted to the fund so that the awards could be granted for the next two years without dipping into the principal while it accrues interest. The goal is to raise another $140,000 by the end of 2019. Meanwhile, two artists will soon be selected by a jury of five to receive the first award from what Baker and Ross hope to become a forever fund, a torch carried into perpetuity.
Artwork from all of the applicants will be part of an exhibit, Women’s Work-2019 Forward Art Prize Applicants, which will open on Gallery Night, Oct. 4, in the Diane Endres Ballweg Art Gallery on the third floor of the Central Library.
