Melissa Potter

Gendered Journeys: Art and Activism of Melissa Potter and Miriam Schaer At SUNY Brockport by Miriam Schaer

If you are anywhere near Brockport NY, in upstate New York, my exhibition with Melissa Potter, Gendered Journeys, will be on view at the Tower Fine Arts Center at the College at Brockport.

The exhibition is anchored around a two-part residency in the Republic of Georgia. Part 1, with Clifton Meador, incorporates a unique craft‐based project which brings together groups of women for a series of workshops in artists’ books and personal storytelling using the medium of handmade felt, an indigenous Georgian craft. The works embrace feminist activism for women’s basic rights to safety, as well as advocacy for women craft artisans, whose skills are endangered, underpaid and under‐recognized.

In Part 2, Potter and Schaer returned to Tblisi in June 2013 to work with local feminist activists to create felt banners and masks in the wake of a riot that attacked peaceful LGBTQ marchers in Tbilisi.

In addition to our collaboration with women artisans and activists in the Republic of Georgia, the exhibition includes Potter's film Like Other Girls Do, featuring the story of a Montenegrian woman who was raised in a Balkan tradition as a boy in a family with no male heirs and Baby (Not) on Board, my on-going project about society's prejudice against childless women.

The exhibition will be on view from March 3-29. The Gallery will be closed from March 14-22 for academic break.

The gallery is located at 180 Holley Street, Brockport, Brockport, NY, USA and the exhibit is free and open to the public

For more information:
http://www.brockport.edu/newsbureau/2080.html

 

Back to Georgia by Miriam Schaer

With Melissa Potter, I am returning to the Republic of Georgia for part 2 of our Soros funded project, Crafting Women's Stories: Lives in Georgian Felt. We will be working with Women of Georgia, to create large scale felt banners with slogans that raise consciousness about women's issues of health, economic security and well being602833_493743833995491_1661185002_n. This is one of the banners, being carried during the first International Women's Day March ever held in Tbilisi,  made by Melissa Potter and Ida Bakhturidze in January during our first workshops. Stay tuned, and please follow felt reports for the latest updates!

Concept and Craft, Handmade in the 21st Century: A Panel Talk at Aljira by Miriam Schaer

Participants share the symbols in the felt they made in the workshop

Miriam Schaer will be presenting her project (with Columbia College Chicago colleagues Melissa Potter and Clifton Meador) Crafting Women's Stories, Lives in Georgian Felt as part of the panel Concept and Craft: Handmade in the 21st Century, moderated by Alyson Pou, at Aljira, Saturday March 30, from 2-4 pm.

Ajira, A Center for Contemporary Art 591 Broad Street Newark, NJ 07102 Phone    (973) 622-1600 Website http://www.aljira.org

https://www.facebook.com/events/618633231487624/

Off to Georgia. The Country. by Miriam Schaer

Along with Clifton Meador and Melissa Potter, I am off to the Republic of Georgia, for our project Crafting Women's Stories: Lives in Georgian Felt. With funding from Soros Arts and Culture Foundation, and in partnership with the Women's Fund of Georgia, we will be running workshops to make artist books from felt based on family stories. Stay tuned! I will post as often as possible-as our internet access maybe spotty at best!