Do you have what it takes to be an honorary citizen? A cultural initiative aims to increase the number of women honored

"Kunstorte in Genderperspektive", September 5 - 8, 2001 in Bielefeld (FRG)

Report by Michaela Schoissengeier on her participation in the expert workshop

The idea of the workshop was to contribute to the exchange between female visual artists, cultural scientists and cultural workers from Central and Eastern Europe, North America, South America and South Africa and to create the conditions for a comprehensive research project on the working situation of female visual artists in different countries and continents.

March 1999 Michaela Schoissengeier

If we let our keen eye wander over established, renowned art institutions, the program beckons to us in a rather one-sided way - not the program in and of itself, no, quite the opposite! My criticism belongs to the selecting (mostly) men. At first glance, it looks as if only artists have the writing, painting, photography and, above all, the say. To my question to a gentleman who organized a symposium where there were no women on the podium, no female speakers and no female prize winners, except for 2/3 women in the audience and the hard-working ladies at the cash desk, the answer was: I'm supposed to look at that too! Yes, gentlemen, you should look at that too, and the argument about quality no longer counts.