She Claims: Art Matters in Auckland

Women’s art has often been overlooked or underappreciated in the history of art. In the 1970s, women artists in Aotearoa New Zealand campaigned passionately for equality within the arts and for wider socio-political change. A 2017 article in House & Garden magazine celebrated a ‘golden moment’ for gender equality in the arts in the United Kingdom, featuring 11 women in senior positions at arts organisations who were photographed at Tate Modern. These women point out there is still a long way to go when it comes to gender bias in the arts.

So, we think it’s time to put women in the spotlight. Join us at She Claims: Art Matters, a series of events where you’ll rub elbows with creatives and critics while celebrating the ideas, voices and power of creative women. We kick off this series just before the 125th anniversary of women’s suffrage in New Zealand.

Guests in this series are visual artist Judy Darragh, writer and performer Courtney Sina Meredith, feminist theatre maker Julia Croft, and more.

Interested in the history of women artists in New Zealand? The exhibition Collective Women: Feminist Art Archives from the 1970s to the 1990s is now on display at Auckland Art Gallery.