Feminism Now: 2014 Panel Discussion

The proliferation of media via the Internet has made it possible for more voices to be heard—and as well to be lost. It is this reality that contextualizes the questions that surround Feminism today as well as Feminism’s relationship to art. This mini-conference, the second of its kind, represents CIA’s Visual Arts Environment’s commitment to examining issues relevant to the community and artists today.

This week-long exploration includes an exhibition of student work, a performance by artist/performer Sara Holwerda, a symposium on Friday, March 21 and this panel discussion.

The panel discussion will begin with a presentation by Megan Lykins Reich on First Wave Feminist Hannah Wilke’s (1940-1993) Intra-Venus work. From there the focus will be on the legacy of earlier feminists on the current movement and younger artists. We will be looking at: What is contemporary feminism and what does it look like within art? How has it evolved? What is the burden or the benefit of the legacy?

Christopher Whittey is currently Vice President of Faculty Affairs and Chief Academic Officer at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Prior to this position he served as Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean at Maine College of Art (MECA) and was the Dean of Academic Services at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), where he served as faculty from 2001-2009. After studying at the Center for Creative Studies and receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Wayne State University, Whittey worked as a master carpenter building stage sets and props in New York for such prestigious venues as the Metropolitan Opera, Saturday Night Live and The Conan O'Brien Show. In 1989, he returned to complete his formal education at the Rhode Island School of Art and received his Master of Fine Arts degree in 1991. The following year, Whittey was selected to attend the prestigious Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. His work has been showcased in numerous locations including White Columns and The Thread Waxing Space in New York and he has received a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship, Van Lier Foundation Grant (awarded by the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program), Individual Artists Grant from New York's Artist Space and a faculty development grant from MICA. Publications include The Detroit News, The New York Times, The Village Voice, Documents, and World Art.

Liz Maugans is one of Zygote Press' co-founders and has been the Managing Director since 1995. She is a native of Lakewood, Ohio, and received her Bachelors of Fine Arts from Kent State University. She received her Masters of Fine Arts in Printmaking from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI. She teaches drawing and printmaking at the Cleveland Institute of Art and Lorain County Community College. She has taught at several of the local universities including Kent State University and Cuyahoga Community College (Metro). She has exhibited her work nationally and is in several collections including BF Goodrich Collection, The Print Club of Albany and the Verne Riffe Center for Government and the Arts. She received the Individual Artist Grant (Excellence Award) in 2000 from the Ohio Arts Council and several other project grants (Artist in Communities Grant, Project Grant-Reverand Albert Wagner portfolio) from the Ohio Arts Council and the Cleveland Collective. She has curated several shows at Heights Arts, Cleveland Artist Foundation (Print Biennials), Cuyahoga Community College and Zygote Press. She is married to John Bando and has three children.

Megan Lykins Reich is the Director of Programs and Associate Curator for the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland. A member of MOCA’s senior management team, Reich directs the museum’s Programs Department, overseeing education, public programs, collaborative initiatives, media interpretation, and programmatic audience engagement strategies. Reich also curates and coordinates exhibitions at the museum; since starting at MOCA in 2004, she has curated 19 exhibitions including There Goes the Neighborhood, iona rozeal brown: all falls down, Duke Riley: An Invitation to Lubberland, and most recently DIRGE: Reflections on [Life and] Death. She graduated valedictorian from The Pennsylvania State University’s School of Visual Arts, where she earned a BA in Art History and a BA in Studio Art. In 2004, Reich received her MA in Art History and Museum Studies from Case Western Reserve University, where she also pursued doctoral studies.

Olivia Mihaltianu was born in Bucharest in 1981 and lives and works in Bucharest. Her recent works are inter-disciplinary projects on personal, social, and cultural identity, including different techniques: video, film, photographs, objects, installations and performance. Her works have been presented in various art spaces in Europe: Where Do We Go From Here?, Secession, Vienna, 2010; Wakefield Meadows, Pavlion Unicredit, Bucharest 2009/2010; 4th Young Artists' Biennial Bucharest, Transfer II, Schafhof-Europaisches Künstlerhaus Oberbayern, Freising Germany, 2008; Anyone But Me, Anywhere But Here, Contemporary Art Gallery of the Brukenthal Museum, Sibiu, Romania, 2008; Social Cooking Romania, NGBK, Berlin, 2007/2008; Found Footage KSAK, Kishnev, Moldavia, 2007; formate/moving patterns, Kunsthalle, Vienna, 2004.

Erika B. Hess is a painter who lives and works in Michigan. She received her BFA in 2006 from Wright State University and her MFA in 2009 from Boston University. Hess’s paintings explore the representation of the middle-class and women through her use of color, abstract forms and pop culture symbols. Her work has been shown nationally and included in various publications, most recently, Post-Industrial Complex, by the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. She currently works for University of Michigan Stamps School of Art & Design.

This event is sponsored by CIA's Sculpture and Liberal Arts Departments, and The Sculpture Center.

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