Junctures in Women's Leadership: the Arts

Judith K. Brodsky is a distinguished professor emerita of visual arts at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. She is the co-founder and co-director of the Rutgers Institute for Women and Art, a part of the Institute for Women’s Leadership at Rutgers. Brodsky formerly held leadership positions within national art organizations including the College Art Association, ArtTable, the Women’s Caucus for Art, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. An artist, she also founded the Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper, now named the Brodsky Center in her honor. Ferris Olin is a distinguished professor emerita, and art historian, curator, women's studies scholar, and librarian, who held numerous leadership positions at Rutgers University, including co-founder and co-director of the Rutgers Institute for Women and Art (a member of the Rutgers Institute for Women's Leadership Consortium), curator of the Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series (the longest running exhibition space in the US for emerging and established women artists), founding head of the Margery Somers Foster Center, executive officer of the Rutgers Institute for Research on Women and the Blanche, Edith, and Irving Laurie New Jersey Chair in Women's Studies, and director of the University's Art Library. She has held numerous leadership positions within national and state art organizations.

• 1    Bertha HonorÉ Palmer (1849-1918)Philanthropist, president of the Board of Lady Managers, Woman’s Building, World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 18932    Louise Noun (1908 – 2002) Philanthropist, art collector, scholar3    Samella Lewis (1924-)Artist, art historian, arts administrator4    Julia Miles (1930-)Theater director and producer; founder, Women’s Project Theater5    Miriam ColÓn (1936-2017)Broadway and Hollywood film actress; founder, Puerto Rican Traveling Theater 6    Jaune Quick-To-See Smith (1940-)Artist and activist7    Bernice Steinbaum (1941-)Gallerist and advocate for diversity8    Anne d’Harnoncourt (1943-2008)Director, Philadelphia Museum of Art9    Martha Wilson (1947-)Artist, activist, archivist; founder, Franklin Furnace Archive 10    Jawole Willa Jo Zollar (1950-)Choreographer; founder of the dance company, Urban Bush Women11    Kim Berman (1960-)Artist, activist; founder, Artist Proof Studio and Phumani Paper, South Africa12    Gilane Tawadros (1965-)Arts administrator; founding director, Institute for International Visual Arts (InIVA), United Kingdom13    Veomanee Douangdala (1976-) and Joanne Smith (1976-) Social and cultural entrepreneurs, Laos

“There will never be too many books teaching Women’s Herstory. Brodsky and Olin’s case studies describe the outrageous and humiliating strangleholds all women have endured and continue to face. Brodsky and Olin champion us to reach our goals.” - Elizabeth A. Sackler, PhD (Founder, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum) “New histories need to be written. Preserving stories that complicate and enrich mainstream narratives is vitally important, and the inspired and inspiring contributions groundbreaking women have made to our cultural world deserve to be celebrated. In addition to leading this charge themselves in their own remarkable careers, with the publication of Junctures in Women’s Leadership: The Arts, Judith Brodsky and Ferris Olin have given us the gift of expanding the canon through these remarkable case studies in creative leadership in the arts.” - Catherine Morris (Sackler Senior Curator, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art Brooklyn Museum) “Here's a round of applause for Judith Brodsky and Ferris Olin, founders of the Rutgers Institute for Women and Art (now the Rutgers Center for Women in the Arts and Humanities, the first feminist art center on a university campus) and heartfelt thanks for Junctures in Women's Leadership: The Arts, their rich insights into generations of women leaders in the arts on the global stage. As arts leaders in their own right and as historians of the rich tradition to which they belong, Brodsky and Olin document feminist cultural history as, just as importantly, they continue to make it. We are doubly in their debt.” - Nell Irvin Painter (Edwards Professor of American History, Emerita, Princeton University, author of The History of White) "Quick to See and Quick to Lead: Women and Power in the Arts" by Stuart Mitchner (Town Topics) " Recommended." (Choice) "This much-needed volume, with its primary focus on visual arts professionals, brings attention to a group of women whose biographies have not been joined before....[Brodsky and Olin's]  sound scholarship is essential to advancing the understanding about the contributions of these women as well as the general contributions of women in the arts. No similar books offer case studies on women leaders across different professions with this focus. Hopefully, more such accessible tomes will follow." (Woman's art Journal) "Reflections on Aging, Identity, and Social Justice in Potent Prints," by Ilene Dube (Hyperallergic)