STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

Tell us about it

• What would you add to this story? Tell us what we missed.
• Do you have photos from this event? Documents we need to see? Share with us.
• Upload photos & videos
• More ways to get your stuff online and in the paper.

More Latest Stories

• You Review Food: Reg Valentinuzzi
• You Review Movie: John Augustine
• Rod Mackenzie, taking music by storm

Share and Enjoy [?]

The fine arts show made up of 24 female artists and many mediums — Women’s Perspective — is now open through March 28 at the Art League of Marco Island.

Distinguished members of the Florida Chapter of the National Association of Women Artists, which were juried in NYC, and exhibited around the world, make up the artists currently on exhibit.

Visitors can listen to all-female singers over the sound system while examining the 44 all-female works of art on display at the Lauritzen and Rush Gallery. Mediums including plexi-glass acetate, charcoal, pastel, water color and fiber art are represented.

Women — “the weaker sex” — were once barred from the male-dominated art world. But being also the savvier sex, they didn’t let this get them down.

In 1889, five females flexed their artists muscles by founding the Women’s Art Club. This group of women created the forerunner of what was to become the National Association of Women Artists — the oldest professional women’s fine arts association in the country.

In an era when women artists were associated primarily with crafts like quilting, the women founded the association to gain the opportunity to exhibit their works alongside the many male artists of the time.

Simply called the Woman’s Art Club, it flourished, and in 1913 was renamed the Nation Association of Women Painters and Sculptors. Headquartered in Manhattan, on 62nd Street, in 1930 membership grew to over 1,000.

In 1991, a collection of works of the female artists dating back to the organization’s inception in 1889 to the present, was established at the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J.

The organization remains a source of culture and education through active exhibitions. It maintains its historical archive, and educational programs are available to members and the public. The archive contains a wealth of information about American women artists and includes the works of many notable artists.

For more information, call 394-4221, visit marcoislandart.com on the Web. The Art League of Marco Island, 1010 Winterberry Drive, is open from 9 to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday.