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Art & Books

Girls’ Art League

We’ve outgrown the days when someone could be expelled from art school because her work was too good for a woman, but statistics about women in visual arts continue to be disturbing. Although women slightly outnumber men in art schools and as practising artists, they continue to earn less and receive fewer shows than their male counterparts. No artworks by women made the 2012 list of top 100 auction sales, and women’s art constitutes between five to 35 per cent of museum collections. Similar figures apply to coverage of art by women in books and magazines. Of course, nudes depicted in art are still 95 per cent female.

This is one reason painter Erica Beyea started Girls’ Art League, a new art program for women and girls, but her initial impetus also came from a discovery she made while teaching at Fine Oak Art School, another small downtown program.

“There was such a difference with the classes that happened to be all women,” she says while setting up for Ladies’ Art Night class at GAL. “It’s a really interesting thing people see in meetings or in their jobs – if it’s all women sitting at a table it’s one thing, but once a guy’s in the room, there’s just a different way of communicating.

“I felt it added a safer element when it was all girls. People were willing to share and talk about more than just their artwork. In teenage classes, they were talking about difficult things like relational problems or family issues, body image stuff, pressures in school and from friends getting involved with things they might agree or disagree with. There’s just an openness about their own personal experience, which then informs the art they’re making in a really great way.”

In its first year, GAL is sharing a space with Liberty Village Kids Art Centre at 254 Niagara. Beyea did a series of free workshops over the summer for four age groups, and is teaching an eight-week class for a small group of adult women, most of them beginners. Later this month. she starts a portfolio development class for young women ages 14 to 18 to prepare for specialized high school programs and art college, plus a class for girls 10 to 13.

Beyea has big plans for an independent space that would be a hub for feminist art activities.

“There’ll be artist talks, mentors and open studio time – for everyone from young girls who are interested in art to established artists, all working together and getting to know each other and building each other up. There’s so many talented, amazing women doing really cool things, and they can get to know young girls who aspire to be like them.”

Workshops by guest artists and mentoring are an important part of the program. Beyea speaks about her experience with a 15-year-old, now a student at Etobicoke School of the Arts, whom she’s been teaching for three years: “I’ll talk to her about stuff that I remember from that age and how tough junior high was, how high school was a little better and college better still. I don’t know if that kind of relationship could have happened if I was a male teacher.” Her student’s admiration has in turned helped Beyea dispel any doubts about her own choices to pursue a life as an artist.

Beyea’s also paying forward the mentoring she received from her high school art teacher in New Brunswick. “I went through some really hard times when I was a young teenager, and she and art saved my life. She took such an interest in me, supported me. It feels really nice to be on the other side of it.”

Fundraising efforts to help GAL get its own space include an Ontario Arts Council grant application and an auction at OCAD on December 6, with work donated by Beyea, Shary Boyle, Rob MacInnis, Jess Riva Cooper and Alicia Nauta, among others.

For more info, contact GAL at girlsartleague.com.

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