Art as Empowerment Kick off Community Event in September

(Homer, NY) Bringing communities together to participate in and experience “art as empowerment,” a group of women artists, dancers, and writers in Cortland and contiguous counties have created a kickoff-event slated for Saturday, September 9, 2023, to launch their mission. This open-to-everyone event will take place on the Village Green in Homer, NY, from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm.

At the upcoming Art as Empowerment event, people are encouraged to visit and participate in a number of activities at tables led by professional writers, artists, and dancers. Planned for the afternoon event are instruction in poetry, songwriting, journal making, beading, watercolor bookmark-making, facepainting, tie dying, and making mosaics with tissue paper. Sessions will be divided by age/grade level to make sure children and adults may find the most appropriate creative challenges.

The September event will serve as the launching point for the new Being Female: Art as Empowerment mission. This group was conceived of by area artists, dancers, and writers in order to bring women together in an artistic movement to create a world of true equality. In a culture where generations of women have dreamed of women’s equality in their lifetime, we find ourselves facing the reality that we are too often moving backward. Rather than continuing to fight to fix this world, we want to create a community movement toward true equality, empowerment, and equal opportunity. Our first step on this journey will be found in generating and showcasing women’s art. All female-identifying artists, from writers in all genres to musicians, dancers to visual artists, performing artists to folk artists, are invited to take part in a collaborative demonstration of true equality.

The group’s vision is to create a world of equality, agency, and empowerment for all women. The Mission Statement for the group follows: Artists of all mediums and multi-media, who identify as female, are invited to individually and collaboratively create art that acts both as a vision and as a vehicle for women’s empowerment and works in order to create a world where true freedom, equality, and justice exist.

Planned workshops to be held during the next year to help to foster the group’s mission and make creative empowerment in our communities a sustained reality. A culminating public showcase for women in the arts, during this first year of the group, will be featured next spring.

Logo by Laurie Seamans.