The Women’s Mobile Museum is a traveling exhibition from 10 female Philadelphia artists of different ages, ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds that challenges social and economic barriers of the traditional art world and asks the question: Who is art for? The museum is now in Point Breeze and is open to the public.
The Women’s Mobile Museum is in Point Breeze for a three-week run
The Women’s Mobile Museum is a year-long residency and apprenticeship program led by internationally renowned South African artist-activist Zanele Muholi. Her first major US-based project is a collaboration with 10 women artists of different ages, ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds. The artists and Muholi started their journey in September and plan to showcase their finished projects on the road in a six-month traveling exhibition. Their latest stop is in Point Breeze.
Since February, the female poets, photographers, painters and digital artists have been collaborating with one another and Muholi to create art reflective of their individual and collective experiences. Through the combined apprenticeship and Women’s Mobile Museum exhibition, the program combats the challenges that economically-disadvantaged women experience in art spaces, such as a lack of artistic resources and opportunities to showcase their work, and little or no access to higher education and professional training.
The apprenticeship has provided the artists with funding, access to previously unavailable tools and resources, exhibition opportunities and formal training. In its final form, the Women’s Mobile Museum will remind visitors that art can and should be done by, seen by and feature all people, taking it outside its typical Western worldview lens.
“These women have come together to share their personal struggles, while simultaneously giving a voice to the overarching struggles their audiences have dealt with their entire lives,” said Lori Waselchuk, Exhibitions and Programs Coordinator at PPAC. “These artists have not been given a voice or a place in their world – the art world – until now, and they’re using this newfound platform as an opportunity to change the conversation and expand the lens through which art is viewed.”
The will be located at the Dixon House in Point Breeze, 1529 S 22nd St. until November 17. Learn more about the traveling museum here.
