National Women’s Art Show in March to include auction of Native American art, signed Leibovitz photo

The auctioning of a print by world-renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz and the work of Native American artists will be among the highlights of the fifth annual  “Celebrating Women: Their Strength and Vision” National Women’s Art Show at Idaho State University March 19-31.

The exhibit, hosted by the ISU Women’s Studies Program, will be held in the Transition and Mind’s Eye galleries located on the lower level of the Pond Student Union Building on the ISU Pocatello campus, and the Seasonal Gallery in the Idaho Museum of Natural History, also on the Pocatello campus.

Along with the art show, a silent auction featuring pieces by well-known local and national artists, including an original photographic print of Blythe Danner and Gwyneth Paltrow autographed and donated by Leibovitz, will help raise funds for Women’s Studies scholarships and College of Arts and Sciences programs.

This year’s event will showcase innovative, interesting, and sometimes challenging art by women from throughout the United States who are working in a variety of mediums, from different kinds of painting to clay, metal, digital imaging and beadwork.

The Mind’s Eye Gallery will feature the highly revered beadwork of local Native American artists. The opening night’s event at 7 p.m. on March 19 will deliver a special treat: a beadwork demonstration by Native American artists with a short talk by Drusilla Gould, instructor of anthropology and Shoshone language at ISU.

“This show is about women’s hearts, their souls, the things they love and hate, and most importantly their everyday experiences,” said Claudia McCoy, event curator and assistant director of ISU’s Women’s Studies program. “Historically, women artists have been excluded from the canon of art history and it is only in recent decades that women artists have successfully struggled to be taken seriously.”

The National Women’s Art Show at Idaho State University provides a forum to celebrate the achievements and creativity of women artists working today, and will feature work by local and national artists. While women constitute a 51 percent majority in the population, their work still only takes up about 5 percent of the space in American museums. Having several ISU art galleries devote 100 percent of their space to women artists is a unique experience for artists and art lovers alike.

For more information, contact Claudia McCoy at 282-5002.