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Arts>Empowering
Asia | China | Arts

‘Shanghai Is an Adventurous Place’: Why Dealer Almine Rech Is Opening Her Fifth Gallery in the Chinese City Next Month

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With spaces in Paris, London, New York, and Brussels, French dealer Almine Rech has quietly reached mega-gallery status, and now she’s set to add yet another location to her list: Shanghai. Rech says she has witnessed the Asian art market blossom over the last decade, so much so that it no longer made business sense to just participate in the fairs there. “The market has evolved a lot,” Rech tells artnet News. “Now, for instance, in the West Bund fair in Shanghai or Art Basel Hong Kong—which I’ve participated in for much longer as it’s an older fair—we sell mostly to Asians
North America | United States | Arts

Dallas Opera Institute for Women Conductors spotlights six in concert

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Although women have made great strides in many walks of life, they're still rarely seen conducting orchestras, in either symphony concerts or operas. On Saturday night, though, six women took turns leading the Dallas Opera Orchestra and various singers at the Winspear Opera House. The concert was a sort of graduation ceremony for participants in the Dallas Opera's second annual Linda and Mitch Hart Institute for Women Conductors. The women, all in early stages of careers, hailed from six different countries. Four additional observers sat in on the two-week institute, but did not conduct on
Europe | France | Activism

Muslim Hip-Hop Dancers Break Down Stereotypes While Breaking It Down In Niqab

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The hip-hop group “We’re Muslim, Don’t Panic“ was conceived of by dancer Amirah Sackett in 2011, a moment Sackett referred to as “a really tumultuous time in history as far as Islam is concerned.” Just seven years earlier, France banned students from wearing hijab to school, the headscarves that in Islamic tradition represent modesty and morality. Although much of the Western rhetoric surrounding the hijab, niqab and burka focuses on the importance of freedom and empowerment, Sackett noticed that by forbidding women to wear certain clothing, France wasn’t liberating women, bu
International | Arts

8 Women Poets You Need To Know About For National Poetry Month

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This April is the 20th National Poetry Month, and what better way to celebrate than by curling up with a good book? While most of us can name at least a few women in the field, here’s a list of contemporary poets you may not be familiar with. 1. Claudia Rankine - Rankine is a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and has published five volumes of poetry, two plays and various essays 2. Tracy K. Smith - Smith's book Life on Mars (Graywolf 2011) was awarded the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for poetry. 3. Natasha Tretheway - Tretheway’s work often explores the lives and jobs of worki
North America | Canada | Activism

Dancer Santee Smith offers a new way to consider indigenous women’s issues

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Award-winning choreographer and dancer Santee Smith wanted to think about indigenous women’s issues in a new way. She wanted to incite a fresh dialogue on women, reconciliation and healing – and part of that dialogue meant reframing the idea of “truths.” By assembling a team of internationally renowned indigenous women artists, she’s put together an interdisciplinary show called Re-Quickening, which opens at Toronto’s Fleck Dance Theatre next week. The Globe and Mail caught up with Smith in Toronto. Read the full interview at the source.
South Asia | Afghanistan | Activism

Afghan teenager braves threats, family pressure to lead women’s orchestra

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Like many teenagers, 19-year-old Negin Khpalwak from Kunar in eastern Afghanistan loves music, but few people of her age have battled as fiercely to pursue their passion in the face of family hostility and threats. Playing instruments was banned outright during the period of Taliban rule in Afghanistan, and even today, many conservative Muslims frown on most forms of music. Negin took her first steps learning music in secret, before eventually revealing her activity to her father. He encouraged her, but the reaction from the rest of her conservative Pashtun family was hostile.
Caribbean | Cuba | Arts

Meet Cuba’s All-Female Orchestra

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Cuba is famous for its music. A lot of people have heard of artists like the Buena Vista Social Club and Celia Cruz. But the country also has a long history of cultivating classical composers and performers. On a recent trip to Cuba, I met one group that stands out. In a country as stereotyped for its machismo as it is for its mambos, you might think an all-female classical ensemble would face an uphill struggle. But Cuban conductor Zenaida Romeu says that's not so. Romeu founded her group, Camerata Romeu, 23 years ago. She wanted to show off the parity between men and women she saw in h
International | Arts

One of the Most Successful Women in the History of Art Finally Receives Retrospective

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Portrait painting exhibitions rarely draw in the big crowds, but this retrospective of Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, at the Metropolitan Museum, is quite the exception. Not least because of the artist’s compelling life story: an autodidact, she was one of the most successful artists of the Late Baroque period, court painter and official portraitist of Marie Antoinette, escapee of the French Revolution, and an artist in exile, traveling from France to Italy, Germany, and Russia before finally returning to France after more than 12 years, as one of the most sought-after portraitists throug
South Asia | Afghanistan | Activism

Afghanistan’s First Female Street Artist Brings Hijabs And Feminism To City Walls

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A woman in a purple hijab sits playing the piano, a tear rolling down her cheek. She plays her solitary tune amongst a sea of blue skyscrapers, soaring above the cars that zoom beneath her unnoticed. This subject already wears her contradictions proudly -- she is strong, she is vulnerable, she is graceful, creative, separate, sad. And yet, at least it seems, she calls out to no one, content to sit with her feelings and express herself creatively, freely, in peace. This work of street art was made by Shamsia Hassani, widely known as the first prominent woman street artist in Afghanistan. H
Europe | Great Britain | Arts

Tate Modern appoints its first British and first female director

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Tate Modern has appointed its first British director. Frances Morris, 57, currently director of collection at Tate, will also become the museum’s first female director when she takes the helm later this year. Her appointment, which comes at a time when European and Americans occupy some of the most senior positions within British arts institutions, was hailed by industry figures as “absolutely the right choice”. She will replace Belgium-born Chris Dercon, who was appointed Tate Modern’s third director in 2010.
Europe | U.K. | Arts

Saatchi Gallery’s all-female exhibition

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Awhite-haired woman looks unnervingly across a huge white space in the Saatchi Gallery from ashen eyes magnified by huge tortoiseshell-framed spectacles. What has she seen? What does she know? And why does her judgment seem so severe? Ljubica is one of three colossal portraits of older women by Jelena Bulajić that feature in Champagne Life, an exhibition entirely by female artists that opens at the Saatchi next week. Bulajić is in her 20s, but the women she portrays bear the marks of time: they are “old women”, but here one of modern society’s most marginalised identities is painte
South Asia | Afghanistan | Activism

MEET SONITA, THE AFGHAN RAPPER ENDING CHILD MARRIAGE ONE SONG AT A TIME

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When Sonita Alizadeh was 10, her parents tried to marry her off. They were unsuccessful, but when she became a teenager they tried again. What they didn’t know was that in the meantime Sonita had discovered her passion for rap music. After the second attempt by her mother a few years ago, she recorded a music video about child marriage that captured the world’s attention. Now a student at Wasatch Academy in the United States, she continues to advocate for ending child marriage. Here, in her own words, she talks about why daughters should not be for sale. To the 28 girls who will be fo
North America | United States | Arts

Loretta Lynn Receives Billboard’s First-Ever Women in Music Legend Award

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Loretta Lynn is an inspiration not just to country fans, but for any woman who aspires to have a career in music. The icon is being honored with Billboard’s inaugural Women in Music Legend Award, recognizing her “historic contributions to the industry and artistry of American music, which has established her among the highest class of performers.” The award will be presented to Lynn Dec. 11 at the Women in Music event in New York City, where pop star Lady Gaga will also be receiving the Woman of the Year award. The ceremony will air on Lifetime on Dec. 18. “From the moment
Latin America | Ecuador | Arts

Women from 10 Countries Lead Urban Culture Festival in Ecuador

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A festival of urban culture led by women artists from around ten countries will give away today new graffiti to the capital of Ecuador, hosting a groundbreaking event of this kind. The festival, entitled Warmi Paint 2015 will bring together more than 20 female artists from countries such as Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Ecuador, to make visible the creative endeavors of young women in the Americas. Some of them will display their skills with graffiti on the streets, others will work together in large-scale murals, as evidence of the flourishing in the street

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