Kentucky Artists Timeline

African Methodist Episcopal Church General Conference: Philadelphia, PA

Women congregants petitioned for preaching licenses asserting that women in leadership roles advocating for women’s rights, including the right to vote, would benefit not only the AME Church but society as a whole.

First Women’s Rights Convention

The first women’s rights convention held in Seneca Falls over July 19-20, 1848.

National Association of Colored Women

The National Association of Colored Women is formed at the First Annual Convention of the National Federation of Afro-American Women in Washington, D.C. on July 21, 1896.

Enid Yandell becomes the first woman to join National Sculpture Society

Enid Yandell made her mark in the male-dominated field of sculpture by being the first woman to join the National Sculpture Society. Yandell was a Louisville native and had an astonishing career completing work in Kentucky, as well as all around the world.

Margaret Sanger opens the first U.S. birth control clinic in Brooklyn, NY.

Margaret Sanger opens the first U.S. birth control clinic in Brooklyn, NY.

Maude Ainslie’s work is exhibited at the Provincetown Art Association

The third annual Provincetown Art Association exhibition showcases Ainslie’s work. Ainslie was a very talented landscape painter and a native of Louisville, KY.

Fayette Barnum is director of Louisville Art Center

Formerly known as the Handicraft Guild and created in 1914, the Louisville Art Center offered art classes to the community.

Dorothea Lange starts photographing the Great Depression

From roughly 1935-1940, Lange documented rural families and migrant laborers affected by widespread poverty.

National Council of Negro Women

Mary McLeod Bethune organizes the National Council of Negro Women with a mission to “lead, advocate for, and empower women of African descent, their families, and communities.”

Carrie Douglas Dudley Ewen showcases “The Green Coat” at the Fifteenth Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Oil Paintings

“The Green Coat” was a self portrait by Ewen and was shown at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. Ewen was known for her illustrations that gained commercial success in the world of greeting cards and children’s books. Ewen worked professionally under the name “Douglas Ewen”, a male name, in order to be paid fairly for her work.

Jean Ritchie has her first public performance

Born in Viper, KY and a University of Kentucky alum, Ritchie has contributed a significant amount to traditional American music.

A solo exhibition of Lucy Diecks’ work is held at Memorial Auditorium

Diecks was born and raised in Louisville and was extremely active in the local art community. She worked mainly with oil and watercolor paints, but also sculpted and made jewelry.

Gwendolyn Brooks wins Pulitzer Prize in poetry

Brooks is the first African American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for her book of poetry Annie Allen.

Marian Anderson performs at the Metropolitan Opera

Anderson is the first African American singer to perform here.

Daughters of Bilitis

The first lesbian organization in the U.S. is formed in San Francisco as an alternative to lesbian bars.

Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on an Alabama bus

Parks’ refusal to move to the back of the bus and her arrest spurs the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Birth Control Pills become FDA approved

Because of the social controversies of the birth control pill, it took the FDA seven months to approve the pill. Even then, it was only approved for short-term use.

President’s Commission on the Status of Women

President Kennedy establishes the President’s Commission on the Status of Women to investigate opportunities regarding equality in education, the workplace, and in law. Eleanor Roosevelt is appointed as Chairwoman.

The Feminine Mystique is published

Written by Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique has been credited with setting off the start of second-wave feminism. The book focuses on the dissatisfaction some women feel from being pinned into the category of housewife or mother.

Equal Pay Act

Congress passed the Equal Pay Act with the end goal to fight wage discrimination based on sex in the workplace. Today on average, women still earn less than men and race affects these numbers even more.

Margaret Chase Smith is first woman to earn a US presidential nomination

Smith was a Maine Republican Senator and despite never winning a primary election, she was the first woman to receive nomination at a major political party’s convention.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act is enacted

This law was created to protect employees from being discriminated based on race and sex.

Women Artists of America, 1707-1964, opens at Newark Museum

The National Organization for Women

The National Organization for Women was created to try and end sex discrimination. Betty Friedan was elected as the organization’s first president.

New York Radical Women’s group forms

The New York Radical Women’s group formed as an influential feminist political organization that pioneers “consciousness raising” methods to promote the women’s movement.

Executive Order 11375

President Johnson’s Executive Order 11375 outlaws employment discrimination based on sex by the federal government. This Executive Order added the category of “sex” to a previous anti-discrimination order he had enacted in 1965.

Adrian Piper begins exhibiting her work as a conceptual artist

Women’s Equity Action League (WEAL) is established

WEAL is created as an alternative to the National Organization for Women (NOW) and did not support any radical or controversial views like abortion or sexuality.

Valerie Solanas self publishes S.C.U.M. (Society for Cutting Up Men) Manifesto

S.C.U.M. is a radical critique of the patriarchy and has gone under multiple titles in various publications. The book was not well-known until 1968 when Solanas attempted to kill Andy Warhol. While many feminists defended Solanas’ views, Betty Friedan considered her ideology too radical and therefore divisive.

New York Radical Women protest Miss America contest

The New York Radical Women’s group argued that Miss America pageant is based in misogyny and further is a comment on how women are treated in America as a whole.

Redstockings forms

Redstockings is a radical feminist group formed after the breakup of New York Radical Women to raise consciousness about sexism and abortion.

Stonewall Riots

Police persecution and raids were all-to-common at LGBTQ+ bars, but one police raid at the Stonewall Inn in NY sparked the beginnings of the Gay Rights Movement.

The National Women’s Hall of Fame opens

In Seneca Falls, NY, the National Women’s Hall of Fame is determined to honor and give recognition to all that women have achieved throughout history.

X-12, The Pioneer Feminist Art Exhibition opens

This exhibition was organized by 12 women artists and opened at a museum in New York City.

Women Students and Artists for Black Art Liberation (WSABAL) is formed

This group was formed by Faith and Michele Ringgold around the issues of white supremacy and white-washing of the art world and academia.

Sisterhood is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings from the Women’s Liberation Movement is published

Edited by Robin Morgan, this anthology is seen to be one of the first anthologies written focused on second-wave feminism work and is mainly conceived as a call-to-action.

Sexual Politics published in U.S.

Kate Millet based this book on her Ph.D. dissertation and it examines the effect patriarchy has on sexual relations. She notably rejects theories from a lot of established male scholars and accepts the work of gay writer Jean Genet.

Our Bodies, Ourselves: A Book By and For Women is published

Published by the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective is an extensive and radical text focusing on women’s health issues, gender, and sexuality. It discusses in depth abortion and reproductive rights as well as women’s masturbation, and was ground-breaking for its time.

Ad Hoc Women Artists’ Committee is formed in New York

Founding members include Lucy Lippard and Faith Ringgold and they were specifically focused on raising awareness around the lack of women artists in the Whitney Museum’s Painting and Sculpture Annual. This group ultimately begins the Women’s Artist Registry, as well.

The Feminist Press is founded

The press was critical in publishing works during second wave feminism and also published the journal Women’s Studies Quarterly. They aim to spark activist movements within society and they want to create a world where everyone can see themselves in a book.

The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution

Written by Shulamith Firestone when she was just 25, it is praised today as a one of the classics in radical feminist literature, especially considering the time. Firestone argues that in order to rid society of sexism completely, culture and even nature must be reordered and examined. She didn’t just want to eradicate male privilege, but stop giving weight to genital differences and sex distinctions themselves.

Off Our Backs has first issue published

Off Our Backs is a feminist news journal that ran from 1970-2008.

26 Contemporary Women Artists exhibition is held

Organized by Lucy Lippard at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Connecticut.

The Female Eunuch is published

Written by Germaine Greer and published first in London, The Female Eunuch is centered around critiquing the nuclear family as repressing women’s sexuality.

Institute for Research on Women (IRW) is founded at Douglass College, Rutgers University

The IRW has been a prominent leader in research on feminism and gender since its creation.

Everywoman Magazine publishes special issue about “Judy Chicago and the California Girls”

Everywoman magazine was known for covering what was happening in the feminist art world as well as feminist art education. “Judy Chicago and the California Girls” is a documentary made by Judith Dancoff about the feminist art movement in the 70s and was part of the focus in this special issue of the magazine. This issue also featured articles on “inner space” imagery by Judy Chicago, Miriam Shapiro, and Faith Wilding.

Women as Sex Object: Studies in Erotic Art, 1730-1970

Edited by Linda Nochlin and Thomas Hess, this anthology established that erotic art has been made by and for men, even though its subject matter is quite heavily women. Multiple different writers and scholars reimagine and analyze these works of art in a new light.

LACWA protest

The Los Angeles Council of Women Artists (LACWA) protest and speak out against the omission of women artists from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s exhibition Art and Technology. The LACWA was a feminist art group that set a powerful precedent for similar groups that formed later on (like the Guerrila Girls).

The Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series of exhibitions begin

Joan Snyder started these exhibitions at the Mabel Smith Douglass Library at Rutgers University and it is the longest-running, continuing exhibition program committed to showcasing women artists in America. Snyder was a painter who attended the all-female Douglass College, rose awareness around the fact that the studio art students had no female artists to look up to or inspire them. They were surrounded by an all-male faculty, as well as constant exhibitions of only male artists. She collaborated with the director of the Mabel Smith Douglass Library, Daisy Brightenback, to start this idea and it took off with great success.