A Room of Her Own Symposium

Join an international group of scholars to explore how select artists featured in A Room of Her Own: Women Artist-Activists in Britain, 1875–1945 negotiated public and private spaces to establish professional careers as artists and thrive creatively.

The exhibition, on view at the Clark through September 14, celebrates the achievements of twenty-five women across the fine and decorative arts and features paintings, drawings, prints, stained glass, and embroidery. Inspired by Virginia Woolf’s essay “A Room of One’s Own” (1929), the exhibition examines the spaces—homes, studios, art schools, and exhibition sites—that were vital to creative production and professional success.

Free. Advance registration recommended. Tickets: clarkart.edu/events

SCHEDULE

Coffee Reception

9:30 am, Manton Research Center reading room

Welcoming Remarks

10:00 am, auditorium

Kathleen Morris, Sylvia and Leonard Marx Director of Exhibitions and Collections and Curator of Decorative Arts, Clark Art Institute

Alexis Goodin, associate curator, Clark Art Institute

Session One

10:15 am, auditorium

10:15–10:40 am: Wendy Hitchmough, "Vanessa Bell and the subversive studio"

10:45–11:10 am: Rowan Bain, "May Morris at the Worktable: Home, Craft, and the Business of Embroidery"

Break

11:15 am

Session Two

11:30 am, auditorium

11:30–11:55 am: Jasmine Allen, "'Making space for women:' Mary Lowndes, pioneering stained glass artist and suffragist"

12:00–12:25 pm: Rachel Stratton, "Strange Beauty in Gwen John’s Interiors"

Break

12:30 pm

Panel

1:30 pm, auditorium

Moderated by Alexis Goodin, associate curator, Clark Art Institute

Exhibition Viewing

2:15 pm, Clark Center lower level galleries

Image: Vanessa Bell, 1879–1961, Self-Portrait (detail), ca. 1915, oil on canvas laid on panel, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund, B1982.16.2