This fall semester marks 50 years of the Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series! The Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series (DWAS) is the oldest continuous running exhibition space in the United States dedicated to making visible the work of emerging and established contemporary women artists. It is a program of CWAH in partnership with Rutgers University Libraries. DWAS was founded by alumna artist Joan Snyder (Douglass College ’62) and established at the Mabel Smith Douglass Library in 1971 under the leadership of Library Director, Daisy Brightenback Shenholm (DC ’44). Formerly known as the Women Artists Series, in 1987 the Series was endowed by Professor Emerita Nelle Smither and renamed in memory of her friend Mary H. Dana (DC ’42). Fun fact: The first exhibit was artist Mary Heilmann in Fall 1971!
Read more here:
The Mary H. Dana Women Artist Series: From Idea to Institution
by Beryl K. Smith
It Wasn’t Neo to Us
by Joan Snyder
Introduction to The Roots of Creativity: Women Artists Year Six
by Lawrence Alloway
Preface to Women Artists Series Year Four
by Linda Nochlin
Introduction to Women Artists Series Year Five
by Lucy Lippard