The Council of 100 presents the Distinguished Woman Artist Award annually to a woman artist who has spent thirty or more years in the studio and has created a unique and prestigious body of work.
History of the Distinguished Women Artists and the Council of 100
The Fresno Art Museum was the first museum in the United States to devote a full year of their exhibition
schedule (1986-1987) exclusively to women artists. Fresno was a fitting place to do this, since, in the
early 1970s, Judy Chicago brought attention to women artists when she taught the first feminist art class
in the country at California State University, Fresno.
In order to finance the cost of this year of exhibitions, it was necessary to match a grant for $25,000.
Robert Barrett, Executive Director of the Museum, suggested the means to raise the funds: to enlist 100
women from the community, each of whom would donate $250 to the Museum for this project. Weekly
meetings were scheduled to inform the invited women about the project and their involvement with it. The
group would be called the Council of 100. Over one hundred women participated and many of those
women continue to support this program today.
The year of exhibitions drew national attention and interest and culminated in a three-day symposium in
May 1987. The symposium brought together an important group of artists, art scholars, critics, and
museum directors from across the country. This national interest and recognition of the Fresno Art
Museum and its program for women artists continues today through the efforts of the Council of 100.
The energy created by that year of women artists’ exhibitions, as well as the symposium, was so
stimulating for the Fresno Art Museum audience that the Council of 100, headed by Virginia Farquhar,
decided to keep its role alive at the Museum by expanding its mission to include the following objectives:
to select annually an outstanding woman artist over the age of 60 who has spent thirty or more years in
the studio, has created a unique and prestigious body of work, and lives 100 miles outside of Fresno, to
present an exhibition of her work at the Fresno Art Museum, to publish a catalog documenting that
exhibition, and to set up a series of lectures throughout the year featuring outstanding women artists from
the Fresno region and beyond.
The program was initiated in the spring of 1988 and has since honored the internationally recognized
artists listed below with the annual Distinguished Woman Artist Award and exhibition. The caliber of these
honorees has elevated the status of the Council of 100’s Distinguished Woman Artist Award and has
brought the Fresno Art Museum well-deserved national recognition from many organizations including the
National Women’s Museum in Washington, D.C. In her Council of 100 lecture, Distinguished Woman
Artist for 2015 Margaret Lazzari of the USC Roski School of Art said, “I don’t know of any organization
quite like yours. I think it’s an amazing, impressive achievement, and it’s not paralleled in other places,
but it’s surely needed.”
|
The Distinguished Women Artists: (Click on names for more information.) 1988 - June Wayne |
Hung Liu (Distinguished Woman Artist of 2016) and Heather Wilcoxon (Distinguished Woman Artist of 2019) |
To learn more about or join the Council of 100, please click here.