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The fact that the Woman's Building is so small that it can hold only a tithe of the beautiful objects offered, has been a great disadvantage.  The character of the exhibits and the high standard attained by most of them serve, therefore, only as an index of the quality and range of the material from which we have drawn.  When our invitation asking co-operation was sent to foreign lands the commissioners already appointed generally smiled doubtfully and explained that their women were doing nothing; that they would not feel inclined to help us, and in many cases, stated that it was not the custom of their country for women to take part in any public effort, that they only attended to social duties.  But as soon as these ladies received our message, sent in a brief and formal letter, the free masonry among women proved to be such that they needed no explanation; they understood at once the possibilities.  Strong committees were immediately formed of women having large hearts and brains, women who cannot selfishly enjoy the ease of their own lives without giving a thought to their helpless and wretched sisters.
          Berthe Honore Palmer**

[[image]] [[caption]] "The Republic's Welcome to Her Daughters."
Rosina Emmet Sherwood.  USA (detail) [[/caption]]

[[image]] [[caption]] Suggestion for Reredos.  Mrs. Kenyon Cox  USA [[/caption]]

The scope and warmth of the Woman's Building are immensely moving.  For a one day visitor, at least, a sense of responsive life and community pervades the place; whatever the problems are, aside from money, I didn't get to them......
What is perhaps most interesting is that art is the focus of such a place as the Woman's Building Though in part due to the intensely committed and energetic women who started it and who happened to be involved in art, this may also indicate some of art's potential for effecting real change.  The less an alternate structure is in competition with the commodity art-world, the better.  I sadly doubt if New York, whose art world is too  large, too powerful, too competitive, will ever succeed in having a single-focused center like the Woman's Building....

The difference between talking to a mixed art-school class and one made up solely of women has to be experienced to be believed, but there sure as hell is a difference in the way women open up, become smart, and imaginative and assertive and better artists.  Those who denounce such situations as separatist should get a glimpse of the sense of purpose and relaxed exhilaration at the Woman's Building
There, everything seems possible-including a non-separatist future.
                Lucy R. Lippard

The Woman's Building is the room of our own, the private space where community begins.  Here we can create a grammar corresponding to our experience; language to capture our intense joy and anguish.  The Brontes, Plaths, Perkins Gilmans, Sextons, and Woolfs were women writers injured by isolation and silence.  I do not intend to be part of that loneliness.  Instead we are writing the woman's words which are our culture. These words sustain us.
                   Deena Metzger


[[image]] [[caption]] Cheryl Swannack in the Woman's Building office. [[/caption]]