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Takeaways // Women in the Arts

10/27/2014

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On a sunny Saturday morning in October, a group of women made up of artists, young girls, mothers, aunts, collegiates and friends, convened at the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis for the Center for Girls’ Leadership’s (CGL) Women in the Arts event. CGL founder and executive director Alexandra Young gave a warm welcome and introduced Sarah White, a performer and panelist. Trish Gardiner facilitated the conversation among five local female artists who are positive female role models and impacting the community in a positive way. The morning concluded for the girls with zentangling, a meditative art practice, and a scavenger hunt around the museum.

As an advocate for both girls and the arts, I found the event incredibly inspiring. I found five main takeaways that apply not only to artists but to everyone.  

Be willing to be vulnerable and take risks. 
Creating something and putting it out in the world, whether it is a photo, a performance, or something entirely non-art related is a frightening experience. Is it good enough? and Will it be well received? are questions many artists wrangle with. Stephany Wieland, who has many passions but focuses primarily on wedding photography and crafty YouTube videos, says “shooting a YouTube video is the most embarrassing thing I've ever done.” She “bares her guts” on camera and continues to do so because it feeds her spirit. White is a woman who wears many hats including rapper and DJ, street fashion and music performance photographer, mother of two and student. White finds that the achievements that push her out of her comfort zone, such as performing at early in the morning at the CGL event, are the ones that she is most proud of.

Stay passionate.
Sarah White advises girls to only take on projects that feel good and inspire and push your art forward. If you say yes to every opportunity that comes your way, you will never have the time to do the things that make you feel motivated, engaged, and happy. She also concedes as a working mom, often the only time she has to work on her craft is late at night and early in the morning.

Be comfortable with starting something and not being good at it. 

Jan Elftmann, artist and director of ArtCar Parade, advises girls to “work, work, work.” Learning an art medium, as well as any new skill, takes time. (Malcolm Gladwell estimates it takes a person 10,000 hours of dedicated practice to gain mastery in a given skill.) Says Elftmann, “Art is a language. Find the best way for you to communicate your ideas to others.”

Welcome the obstacles. 
Laura Zabel, actor and executive director of Springboard for the Arts, feels unfulfilled if she doesn't have something to “untangle.” As a young woman with little experience, Zabel struggled with ageism when she first started running Springboard. She had to prove herself by working hard and by doing a good job. Says Zabel on art, “Creativity blooms when there are parameters and limits. Sit in the moment of challenge.”


Pay attention to the things you love and care about. 
For Julie Ann Stevens spent 30 years in business before doing a 180 and pursuing art as a full-time job. Stevens takes inspiration from nature, “Art is all about creating something that lives outside of you and others can receive.”


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Anna Bottila spent several years as an educator at Laura Jeffrey Academy, a girl-focused STEM school in St. Paul. She is passionate about empowering girls through education and extracurricular opportunities and closing the achievement gap. Anna is also an advocate for the arts and serves on the Board of Directors for Altered Esthetics (Ae), a community arts organization located in Northeast Minneapolis. When Anna isn't hanging out with sassy middle schoolers or volunteering for Ae, she is usually organizing parties for friends, doing yoga, or planning her next travel adventure.
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Women in the Arts Sneak Peak

10/23/2014

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Saturday is our big Women in the Arts event at the Weisman Art Museum! Did you register to attend Women In the Arts yet? We thought we'd share a quick sneak peak of our amazing artists who will be sharing what they've learned about leadership, creativity, and what it means to make a career in the arts. The event is FREE and open to women of all ages. See you Saturday!


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Sarah White is an eclectic singer, emcee and musician and has played both nationally and internationally, best known in Minneapolis for her previous involvement with Black Blondie and Traditional Methods. While her passion to grow and break molds keeps her sound ever-changing, her love of art keeps it classic. Sarah has independently released 2 solo albums, her voice is featured on record label releases from the Midwest to Tokyo and she won Scion’s Best Electronic Vocalist Competition in 2009.White currently fronts her new band, Shiro Dame, known for its "neon soul" sound. Debuting in 2013, their sound is ever-changing, undefined, electric medicine to music heads seeking new aural experiences.

 Shiro Dame is comprised of Sarah White on vocals, Rico Simon Mendez on guitar, synths, & beats, Blayr Alexander on drums, Dameun Strange on keytar and Ry Dill on bass.

 Sarah is also a mother, a photographer and a creative with a Minneapolis-based event production company.
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Laura Zabel is executive director of Springboard for the Arts, an economic and community development agency based in Minnesota. Springboard provides programs that help artists make a living and a life; and programs that help communities tap into the resource that artists provide. Some of Springboard's projects include: Community Supported Art (CSA), which is based on the Community Supported Agriculture model and connects artists directly with patrons; the Artists Access to Healthcare program, and the Irrigate project, a national model for how cities can engage artists to help reframe and address big community challenges. Springboard's programs have been replicated in over 50 communities across the country. Springboard recently launched the Creative Exchange: a new national platform for story and resource sharing in partnership with Issue Media Group and the Knight Foundation. Laura is a frequent speaker on topics related to arts and community development at convenings such as the Aspen Ideas Festival, Urban Land Institute and Americans for the Arts and was recently named a 2014 Bush Foundation Fellow.  She has been named one of the 50 most influential people in the U.S. Nonprofit Arts and received the Visionary Leader award from the MN Council of Nonprofits. Laura serves on advisory boards for the Knight Foundation, Twin Cities LISC and the University of Kansas. Laura is also an actor and lives in Minneapolis with her comedy writer husband, Levi Weinhagen, and their 8-year old daughter.
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Jan Elftmann is a local Minnesota artist and educator hailed for her ability to incorporate art into her everyday life, and everyday life into her art. Jan is the founder and director of the ArtCar Parade of Minnesota on the fourth Saturday in July and she has been a contributing artist with the Art Shanty Project for the last six winters. Jan has a Bachelors of Fine Arts from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
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Julie Ann Stevens is an artist and facilitator of new arisings through experiences of “Art to Hearts”. Her early expressions were photojournalistic, recording the story and soul of images as they arise in nature and human encounter.  This continues to inform her current paintings which are inspired by patterns in nature that invite people to experience the depth dimension in themselves and in relationships with others. Her work is guided by her participation in the  Living School — a global network of people learning to cultivate a contemplative mind through teachings and practices, and deepen their awareness of common union with Divine Reality and all beings. She is the author of Dance With Me, An Invitation and Wild Wellies Wanted and 7SWANS.

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Stephany Wieland has been making for years and now documents her adventures through Making It WIth Stephany. If she can’t find it, she makes it.  If she has found it and it’s crap, she makes her own improved version. She isn’t great at 1 thing, but she is pretty damn good at a lot of different things. She has been a 911 dispatcher, a professional photographer, a phone operator, a self taught seamstress, a head cook at an Italian restaurant and one helluva Halloween costume maker. She is amazing at tricking children into eating vegetables and taking naps.  She can also host the shit out of a YouTube video. She has dabbled in millinery and veil making, is a decent baker but a better cook. She is a mom, an accomplished runner (ok, 1 marathon and some 1/2 marathons) and a seasoned garage sale/thrift shopper. She knows her way around a table saw and nail gun. She is OK at basic graphic and web design, crochet, and professionalism. She is terrible at math, knitting and snowboarding. Sometimes, she is funny.
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