Culture
Opportunities Abound with Women of Appalachia Events
< < Back to opportunities-abound-women-appalachia-eventsWomen residing in Appalachia will once again have the opportunity to share their fine art creations and make their voices heard when submitting their visual and spoken word art for possible inclusion in the 6th annual Women of Appalachia events.
The vision of the Women of Appalachia project is to empower and strengthen Appalachia’s visual, literary and performing women artists in a welcoming environment, while encouraging a positive community connection.
This year’s juried invitational exhibits will be centered on producing events that are representative of the vast talent of the region while embracing a diversity of lifestyles and personal backgrounds of women who reside in the many counties of Appalachia.
New to the project this year, accepted work will travel to four different venues throughout Ohio and West Virginia over a six-month period.
The season begins in mid-November with the fine arts exhibition, hosted by the Parkersburg Art Center, 725 Market St., Parkersburg, W.Va. In January, the exhibit will travel to the Muticultural Art Gallery, Baker University Center, on the Athens campus of Ohio University and will finish up its journey at the PVG Artisans Gallery, 13 W. Second St., Chillicothe, Ohio, in May/June 2015.
The sister event, “Women Speak,” offering outstanding juried performance in story, song and poetry will be hosted by ARTS/West, 132 W. State St., Athens in April 2015 and PVG Artisans Gallery in May 2015.
“I am so pleased that these esteemed galleries have so graciously offered to host this season’s events, allowing the art to be seen and heard potentially by hundreds of folks in their respective communities,” said founder/curator Kari Gunter-Seymour. “The additional venues extend the opportunity to share the WOA mission. Many people have an image of an Appalachian woman, and they look down on her. WOA encourages participation from women of diverse backgrounds, ages and experiences to come together to embrace the stereotype, to show the whole woman; beyond the superficial factors that people use to judge her.”
Women residing in any one of the many Appalachian counties are eligible to submit their work. Visual artists must be 18 years or older and spoken word artists 15 years or older to participate. The submission deadline for fine art is Oct. 15 and the deadline for “Women Speak” is Jan. 15.
For submission information and to download the WOA prospectus, vist www.womenofappalachia.com or visit WOA on Facebook. For questions, email womenofappalachia@gmail.com.