During the Spring 2025 semester, students in Dr. Kelsey Frady Malone’s ARH/WGS 243: Women in Art course explored the roles that women have played in the history of art across time as artists, as subjects, and as active agents of change. Towards this goal, we examined and questioned long-accepted models of artistic creativity, scholarship, and curatorial practice that have upheld the ideal of the “male artistic genius” which has largely resulted in the exclusion of women from the mainstream art historical canon. To better understand the structural barriers that have inhibited women’s full participation in the arts, we have also looked to feminist scholars and curators who have worked to recover women artists from the past and to reframe how art history has been written, exhibited, and taught since the 1970s.
To put what we have learned into practice, we turned to the College’s permanent art collection and set out to curate an exhibition of women’s art following a feminist art historical model – one that is collaborative, exploratory, recuperative, and actively resistant to traditional narratives. reframing: women artists in the berea college art collection brings greater attention to the varied ways that women have achieved professional success and personal fulfillment through their creative practice. As these artworks show, in spite of very real and challenging obstacles, women have pursued art in order to pass down collective histories, create and foster kinship bonds, share their own perspective, and challenge dominant discourses and representations of the so-called “feminine” experience.
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a woman’s place… in art
It is no secret that women’s place – and their image – in Western art history has been limited based on societal prescriptions of femininity that tie women to domesticity and the home. Women artists have likewise been historically relegated to specific roles and subjects deemed socially appropriate for them, such as botanical illustration and still life. Additionally, access to formal art institution was restricted on the basis of gender, race, and class, forcing most women to seek alternative methods of learning.
Despite the limitations women artists have experienced historically, they have made substantial contributions to the art world. For instance, Emily Grace Hanks and Corita Kent are twentieth-century examples of women who expertly navigated their careers in a system designed to disadvantage them. As understandings of femininity and art have become more inclusive, women artists have broken away from society’s assigned roles, much like the girl stepping out of line in For the Innocent (seen near the entry to this exhibition). The works in this section reveal both the constraints women in the art world have operated under as well as how they have overcome them.
Interpretation written by Sisaly Krick (Class of 2025) and Alethia Williams (Class of 2026).
traditional subjects through a female lens
“Men make many images of women that seem distant and detached. I believe that there’s a different gaze of woman-on-woman love that is well beyond the notion of exploitation…” – Mickalene Thomas
While women have historically been prevented from access to and recognition within the art world, male artists have long been lauded for creating idealized images of women based on narrowly defined tropes that uphold patriarchal expectations of femininity, like the doting mother, the dutiful servant, or the femme fatale. However, in the hands of a woman artist, representations of women are subverted into something much more faithful to the reality of a complex female experience.
This group of artworks represents a woman artist’s perception of the woman’s body. Rosemary Feit Covey, Joan Myers, and Donna Polseno resist the exploitation of the female body by reinterpreting the tradition of the female nude through their own perspective. Pat Kabore, Gertraud Reinberger-Brausewetter, and Mary Marvin Breckinridge Patterson redefine the depiction of ascribed roles in motherhood, which has frequently been misconstrued to portray an ideal at the cost of the women’s humanity. These artists are just a few examples in the Berea College Art Collection who reframe traditional subjects by depicting experiences in a way only a woman artist can.
Interpretation written by Kayla Eicholtz (Class of 2026) and Lindsay Mayes (Class of 2026).
kinship and connection
Across societies, women have always been integral in keeping sacred traditions and values alive by passing down important rituals, stories, craft and artistic practices, knowledge, and customs from one generation to the next in order to maintain connection to a shared cultural identity. Similarly, women artists have built their own communities centered around their art as a way to find connection and space in a traditionally male dominated profession. These networks enable women artists to foster bonds of friendship, share stories, and create a space for one another outside of the domestic sphere in which to practice their art.
Feminist scholars point out that these kinship bonds are not only about preserving the past; they are an act of resilience and resistance in a patriarchal world that often prioritizes written histories (which have often overlooked or omitted women entirely) over lived experiences. The artworks in this section are a testament to the kinds of communities that women have built and sustained through and alongside their artistic practices.
Interpretation written by Allison Bailey (Class of 2025), Tabitha Johnson (Class of 2027), Vanessa Lay (Class of 2027), and Roi Rogers (Class of 2027).
women’s craft / women’s art
For centuries, women have poured their creativity into quilts, pottery, embroidery, and other so-called domestic arts as a part of their household tasks – resulting in works of beauty, skill, and deep meaning. Yet, society has often dismissed these objects as mere “craft,” separating them from what was considered “fine art,” such as drawing, painting, and sculpture. Thus, while women have stitched, molded, and woven stories into fabric and clay as artistic expression, the world has refused to recognize it as such.
This section brings together artists who challenge that divide. Doris Ulmann’s photographs capture the acts of quilting and basketry, artistic practices passed through generations of women. Elva Nampeyo’s pottery carries the history, symbolism, and traditions of the Hopi people, proving that functional objects can be deeply artistic. Miriam Schapiro reclaims embroidery and “feminine” patterns, turning what was once dismissed as “women’s work” into bold statements of empowerment. Similarly, the blue satin embroidery sample, made by a woman whose name we may never know, reminds us of the countless women whose art has gone underrecognized. These works push against the outdated idea that craft is less than art. They show that creativity, no matter the medium, is powerful, and women’s work has always been worth celebrating.
Interpretation written by Madison Allen (Class of 2027), Aziza Altyyeva (Class of 2027), Easton Mason (Class of 2026), and Kylee Tudor (Class of 2026).
