Collaborations: Drawn Together

The first version of this exhibit, Drawn Together: Women Make Art in the American West, was produced by the Women of the West Museum with support from Xcel Energy Foundation. The table top exhibit, configured as a large, elegant, canvas book, premiered at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, in Boulder, Colorado. The exhibit subsequently toured Colorado, presented at the Durango Arts Center, the Loveland Museum and Art Gallery, and the Sangre de Cristo Arts Center (Pueblo).

The exhibit team included curator Joan Markowitz, designer Claire O'Leary, editor Barbra Cohn, and museum staff.

While the most famous woman artist in the West is unquestionably Georgia O'Keeffe--known for her solitary and independent nature--many other women have chosen to work together to produce art.

In this exhibit, the Women of the West Museum recognizes some of these groups and acknowledges their collaborations and partnerships. These six examples represent just a few ways in which women have come together for the purpose of creating art: as mentors and disciples; mothers, sisters, and daughters; teachers and students; and friends and associates.

These women made art for communal, ceremonial, and commercial purposes, as well as for personal expression and enjoyment. Their works reflect their social, cultural, and physical environments, as well as their personal journeys as artists and as women. Their art also conveys stories of migration, cultural preservation, recreation, emancipation, consciousness raising, and celebration.

--Marsha Semmel