The Women's Caucus for Art (WCA), founded in 1972, is a non-profit organization based in New York City, which supports women artists, art historians, students, educators, and museum professionals. The WCA holds exhibitions and conferences to promote women artists and their works and recognizes the talents of artists through their annual Lifetime Achievement Award. Since 1975 it has been a United Nations-affiliated non-governmental organization (NGO), which has broadened its influence beyond the United States. Within the WCA are several special interest causes including the Women of Color caucus, Eco-Art Caucus, Jewish Women Artist Network, International Caucus and the Young Women's Caucus. The founding of the WCA is seen as a "great stride" in the feminist art movement.

Overview The Women's Caucus for Art membership includes artists, students, educators, art historians, and professionals from museums and galleries. The organization holds conferences, produces exhibitions, conducts research and issues awards.Ferguson Career Resource Guide for Women and Minorities: Resources for women. Infobase Publishing; 1 January 2006. . p. 203.

Along with the founding of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, its creation is seen as one of the "great strides [that] have been made in developing an institutional infrastructure for women's art and art history since the 1970s."Susan R. Ressler. Women Artists of the American West. McFarland; 2003. . p. 13.

History

Background

Within the broader feminist movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s, a feminist art movement began to contest women's under-representation in professional art organizations, art exhibitions and art history textbooks. The movement "was a major watershed in women's history and the history of art." Its slogan was "the personal is political."

In 1969, Women Artists in Revolution (WAR) formed in response to the inclusion of “only 8 women among the 143 artists shown” at the Whitney Museum’s 1969 Annual. WAR “demanded that the museum change its policies to include more women artists.” In 1971, Linda Nochlin’s "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" and Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro started the Feminist Art Program at Cal Arts, which provided a new arts education for women based on mentorship, training in tools, research about women artists, consciousness-raising, and role-playing. The following year, "Paula Harper and twenty-one participants in the Feminist Art Program" conceived of "a landmark collaborative installation staged in an empty house in Los Angeles" and called Womanhouse

College Art Association Women's Caucus At its annual conference in San Francisco, women within the College Art Association formed a women's caucus on 28 January 1972, electing Ann Sutherland Harris as the first president (1972-1974).Eleanor Dickinson, The History of the Women's Caucus for Art . Retrieved 7 March 2013. However, tensions developed between this group and the CAA board, and in November 1973 the CAA executive asked "the Women's Caucus, which is not officially affiliated with the CAA, to drop the use of the phrase 'of the CAA' from its name."Susan L. Ball. The Eye, the Hand, the Mind: 100 Years of the College Art Association. Rutgers University Press; January 2011. . p. 31, 64, 108.

Women's Caucus for Art founded In 1974 Mary Garrard, president of the caucus from 1974 to 1976, oversaw the formation of the Women's Caucus for Art (WCA) as an independent non-profit organization. Arlene Raven, who, with Judy Chicago and Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, founded the Feminist Studio Workshop of Women's Building, was also part of WCA's roots as was Eleanor Dickenson. The WCA grew, establishing regional chapters and publishing research on women's art. Membership broadened from predominantly art historians to a majority of women artists, and the third president, Judith K. Brodsky, was herself an artist rather than art historian.

In 1977 the Coalition of Women's Art Organizations (CWAO) was formed as a political arm of the WCA.

Organizational structure The Women's Caucus for Art is a national member organization with 23 regional chapters located throughout the United States. The headquarters, in New York City, is an umbrella organization governed by a national board of directors consisting of an executive committee (president, president elect, treasurer/secretary, vice president/chair of national exhibitions, past president/chair of legacy, vice president of chapter relations, vice president for organizational outreach, vice president for development and vice president of special events), regional vice presidents, standing committee chairs, directors (including chairs of internal caucuses)) and board-appointed advisors. The National President is voted in by the membership for two-year terms. Half of the board is nominated by the incoming president and approved by the board, and the other half is voted in by chapter representatives.

Many of the regional chapters are organized as separate 501(c)3 non profit organizations. The Northeast Region consists of WCA New Hampshire, Central Mass WCA, WCA New York, and Philadelphia WCA. The Southeast Region consists of Greater Washington DC WCA, WCA Georgia, WCA Alabama, WCA Florida, and WCA Louisiana. The Midwest Region consists of Chicago WCA, WCA Michigan, WCA Minnesota, WCA Indiana, WCA Nebraska, and St. Louis Missouri WCA. The Southwest Region consists of WCA Colorado and Texas WCA. The Pacific Region consists of WCA Northern California, WCA Peninsula, WCA Monterey Bay, Silicon Valley WCA, Southern California WCA and Oregon WCA.

Special-interest caucuses Within the WCA are several special interest causes including the Women of Color caucus, Eco-Art Caucus, Jewish Women Artist Network, International Caucus and the Young Women's Caucus.

After being appointed to Vice President of Minority Affairs by the President Ofelia Garcia in 1986, artist and activist Faith Ringgold proposed the formation of a women of color caucus. It was within this context that "Coast to Coast", an arts organization for women of color, was created.Ringgold 1995, pg. 263.

The Jewish Women Artist Network (JWAN) was founded by Francia Tobacman. From 2006 to 2012 it organized national conferences of Jewish related themes. The International Caucus maintains WCA's involvement with the United Nations, develops art exhibitions related to the UN Goals, develops collaborative projects with other global organizations, collects data about WCA's art and activism projects, and shares this information with the larger WCA membership. The Young Women's Caucus supports women artists of who are college students, returning students and young professionals seeking to create a career in art. It provides networking resources to established women artists within the broader organization.

National presidents

1972–1974: Ann Sutherland Harris 1974–1976: Mary D. Garrard 1976–1978: Judith K. Brodsky 1978–1980: Lee Ann Miller 1980–1982: Susan DeRenne Coerr 1982–1984: Muriel Magenta 1984–1986: Ofelia Garcia 1986–1988: Annie Shaver-Crandell 1988–1990: Christine Havice 1990: Carol Heifetz Neiman 1990–1992: Iona Deering 1992–1994: Jean Towgood 1994–1996: Helen Klebesadel 1996–1998: Imna Arroyo 1998: Transition Leadership Committee (Magi Amma, Catherine Carilli, Margaret Lutze, and Gail Tremblay) 1999: Gail Tremblay 2000–2002: Magi Amma 2002–2004: Noreen Dean Dresser 2004–2006: Dena Muller 2006–2008: Jennifer Colby 2008–2010: Marilyn J. Hayes 2010–2012: Janice Nesser-Chu 2012–2014: Priscilla Otani 2014–2016: Brenda Oelbaum 2016–2018: Susan M. King 2018–2020: Margo Hobbs 2020–present: Donna Jackson

Lifetime Achievement Awards

In 1979 the WCA created the National Lifetime Achievement Awards. The goal was to acknowledge the work of notable women in the arts and stimulate the growth of opportunities within the arts. An important annual function, honorees are selected by a group of notable WCA scholars and artists. A few honorees include painter Georgia O'Keeffe, painter Alice Neel, art historian Lucy R. Lippard, sculptor and painter Selma Burke, and women's museum founder Wilhelmina Holladay.Joan M. Marter. The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art. Oxford University Press; 2011. . p. 267.

Awardees Source: 1979: Isabel Bishop, Selma Burke, Alice Neel, Louise Nevelson, Georgia O'Keeffe 1980: Anni Albers, Louise Bourgeois, Caroline Durieux, Ida Kohlmeyer, Lee Krasner 1980 Alternate Awards: Bella Abzug, Sonia Johnson, Sister Theresa Kane, Grace Paley, Rosa Parks, Gloria Steinem 1981: Ruth Bernhard, Adelyn Breeskin, Elizabeth Catlett, Sari Dienes, Claire Falkenstein, Helen Lundeberg 1982: Bernice Abbot, Elsie Driggs, Elizabeth Gilmore Holt, Katherine Kuh, Charmion von Wiegand, Claire Zeisler 1983: Edna Andrade, Dorothy Dehner, Lotte Jacobi, Ellen Johnson, Stella Kramrisch, Leonore Tawney, Pecolia Warner 1984/1985: Minna Citron, Clyde Connell, Eleanor Raymond, Joyce Treiman, June Wayne, Rachel Wischnitzer 1986: Nell Blaine, Leonora Carrington, Sue Fuller, Lois Mailou Jones, Dorothy Miller, Barbara Morgan 1987: Grace Hartigan, Agnes Mongan, Maud Morgan, Honoré Sharrer, Elizabeth Talford Scott, Beatrice Wood; President's Award: Patricia Hills 1988: Margaret Burroughs, Dorothy Hood, Miriam Schapiro, Edith Standen, Jane Teller 1989: Bernarda Bryson Shahn, Margret Craver, Clare Leighton, Betye Saar, Samella Sanders Lewis 1990: Ilse Bing, Elizabeth Layton, Helen Serger, May Stevens, Pablita Velarde 1991: Theresa Bernstein, Mildred Constantine, Otellie Loloma, Miné Okubo, Delilah Pierce 1992: Vera Berdich, Paula Gerard, Lucy Lewis, Louise Noun, Margaret Tafoya, Anna Tate 1993: Ruth Asawa, Shifra M. Goldman, Nancy Graves, Gwen Knight, Agueda Salazar Martinez, Emily Waheneka 1994: Mary Adams, Maria Enriquez de Allen, Beverly Pepper, Faith Ringgold, Rachel Rosenthal, Charlotte Streifer Rubinstein 1995: Irene Clark, Jacqueline Clipsham, Alessandra Comini, Jean Lacy, Amalia Mesa-Bains, Celia Alvarez Muñoz 1996: Bernice Bing, Alicia Craig Faxon, Elsa Honig Fine, Howardena Pindell, Marianna Pineda, Kay WalkingStick 1997: Jo Hanson, Sadie Krauss Kriebel, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Moira Roth, Kay Sekimachi; President's Award: Tee Corinne, Ofelia Garcia 1999: Judy Baca, Judy Chicago, Linda Frye Burnham, Evangeline J. Montgomery, Arlene Raven, Barbara T. Smith 2001: Joyce Aiken, Marie Johnson Calloway, Dorothy Gillespie, Thalia Gouma-Peterson, Wilhemina Holladay, Ellen Lanyon, Ruth Waddy 2002: Camille Billops, Judith K. Brodsky, Muriel Magenta, Linda Nochlin, Marilyn J. Stokstad; President's Award: Barbara Wolanin 2003: Eleanor Dickinson, Suzi Gablik, Grace Glueck, Ronne Hartfield, Eleanor Munro, Nancy Spero 2004: Emma Amos, Jo Baer, Michi Itami, Helen Levitt, Yvonne Rainer; President's Awards: Elizabeth A. Sackler, Tara Donovan 2005: Betty Blayton-Taylor, Rosalynn Carter, Mary D. Garrard, Agnes Martin, Yoko Ono, Ann Sutherland Harris; President's Award: Andrea Barnwell 2006: Eleanor Antin, Marisol Escobar, Elinor Gadon, Yayoi Kusama; President's Award: Maura Reilly 2007 (co-hosted with the College Art Association Committee on Women in the Arts): WCA Recipients: Barbara Chase-Riboud, Wanda Corn, Buffie Johnson, Lucy R. Lippard, Elizabeth Murray; President'sAward: Connie Butler; CWA Award Recipients: Ferris Olin, Judith K. Brodsky 2008: Ida Applebroog, Joanna Frueh, Nancy Grossman, Leslie King-Hammond, Yolanda López, Lowery Stokes Sims; President's Award: Santa Barraza, Joan Davidow, Tey Marianna Nunn 2009: Maren Hassinger, Ester Hernandez, Joyce Kozloff, Margo Machida, Ruth Weisberg; President's Award: Catherine Opie, Susan Fisher Sterling 2010: Tritobia Hayes Benjamin, Mary Jane Jacob, Senga Nengudi, Joyce J. Scott, Spiderwoman Theater (Lisa Mayo, Gloria Miguel, Muriel Miguel); President's Award: Juana Guzman, Karen Reimer