The Legendary Women Artists of Venice Award was established in 2018 in honor of Women’s History Month. The award recognizes the contribution of women to the arts and their profound impact on society. The award is presented by the Venice Art Crawl and the Venice Chamber of Commerce.

 

The Award is presented to female artists whose life and work exemplify the Venice Art Crawl’s mission of creating community through art, education, and social activism. The award acknowledges a lifetime of achievement for its recipients and a sisterhood in the arts. Awardees highlight the benefits of unique expression, collaborative initiatives, and creative workspaces. These amazing women uphold the legacy of feminist art history and theory across multiple art disciplines and meet the rigorous criteria of considerable accomplishment, achievement, and contribution to the Arts and Venice Beach community – with over 10+ years experience represented by their professional efforts, work, vision, and commitment.

 

People in the art world want to think we are achieving equity and inclusion more quickly than we are–Women face institutional obstacles with only 14% of living artists represented in galleries nationwide. Women are dramatically undervalued – between 2008 and 2019, more than $197 billion was spent on art at auction. Of that, work made by women accounted for just $4 billion–around 2 percent. Women earn 75% of bachelor of fine arts and master of fine arts degrees in the states, and yet only 46% of working artists are women.

 

• • 74¢ to the $1 – amount made by women visual artists, despite making up nearly half the population of visual artists in the U.S.

• Of the 3,050 galleries in the Artsy database, 10% represent not a single woman artist, while only 8% represent more women than men. Almost half represent 25% or fewer women.

• Data analysis shows that of 18 major U.S. art museums found their collections were 87% male and 85% white. 

• At the Art Basel Fairs (Basel, Miami & Hong Kong) women made up less than ¼ of artists on view in the past four years. 

 

It’s time to listen – to everyone’s experiences of our shared world through their art.