What a Difference 40 Years Makes! Winter 2021

 Finally! Our 40th year begins, amid a flurry of plans and projections. Three gallery shows have been planned so far: March 12-July 25 at the BNY Mellon Satelite Gallery, curated by Contemporary Craft, who is celebrating its 50th Anniversary. Touchstone Center for Crafts will pick up the same exhibition from July 31 until their Open House on October 2. Then in June, we celebrate with Magnificent Motown: Art Inspired by the Music." This will be historic!  Kelly-Strayhorn Theater embraces WOV as its premier visual arts residency hosting an exhibition to be held following renovations, turning its lobby into a new gallery space. Support comes from Rivers of Steel and the Creative Business Accelerator. In September, look for our 40-year Restrospective, a salon-style show that is sure to surprise. For this project, the WOV organization became a course of Pitt's Curatorial Development studies, under Professor Alex J. Taylor who stated in his syllabus: 

HAA1019 Curatorial Development Spring 2021 "This core museum studies course will work to develop the artist-based research leading to a major exhibition celebrating the fortieth anniversary of Women of Visions, Inc., the Pittsburgh-based collective of Black women artists, in the University Art Gallery in Fall 2021. Students will engage with art historical sources about the contemporary practice by Black women artists, and develop their own research that will contribute to the planning Abreand programming of the exhibition. Student work in the class will culminate in a publishable essay on a single artist intended for inclusion in a proposed exhibition publication."

Members and alumni who will be part of the Curatorial Development class Art Talks include Renee Stout, Ruth Beidan, Janet Watkins, LaVerne Kemp, Christine Bethea, Marty Martin Charlotte Ka, and Ashley Jones. Others who want to mentor and work with the Pitt students are Altha Pittrell, Lynn B, JoAnne Bates, and Tina Brewer. Curatorial Students will also interview members past and present to create copy for a 40th Anniversary catalog. Contemporary Crafts's Museum Studies Intern, Abreihona Lenihan, working with CC's Kate Lydon, is also in the class and joins WOV to assist with our celebration exhibitions at the BNY Mellon Satellite Gallery and University Art Gallery. Lenihan's love of art was cultivated by visits to museums with her mother, an interior designer. More about our two upcoming exhibitions soon!

Abreihona Lenihan is a third year

Pitt Student and an emerging Historian 

and Curator