Art Exhibition and Gathering

Join us for an intimate gathering for the SPACES and PLACES art exhibition as we debut new works by Teresa Cook and Emily Mitchell, our two Zora Neale Hurston Fellows in Placemaking, Community-Building, and Literary Arts. We'll explore ideas of SPACE and PLACE in the company of friends, community leaders, artists, writers and muscians. Come celebrate with us!

PROGRAM

• 2:00-2:30 p.m., art plus live music by a special musical guest
• 2:30 p.m. Introductions and opening by Jennifer Wolfe
• 2:35-2:55 p.m. Readings by Emily Mitchell and Teresa Cook, as well as Q&A
• 2:55-3:05 p.m., Readings by Kandice Clark, WWfac Board Member and Creative Placemaker for Riverside Avondale Preservation, on the importance of placemaking in Jacksonville and what that means for all of us
• 3:05-3:10, Q&A, reflection, cross-talk, thanks to Louise Freshman Brown and Cheryl Cummer
• 3:10 introduction of other works on display by artists Barbara Hionides and Deborah Reid
• 3:20-4:00 p.m. Music, celebration, sales of art, journals, anthologies, and T-shirts

SPACES AND PLACES: An Overview

“The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are
and not be questioned.”—Maya Angelou

“You’re the place I call home. You’re the place I put down my roots.
You’re the place I know I belong.”—Louise Erdrich

What is SPACE and what is PLACE?

In the book Space and Place, Yi-Fu Tuan says “Spaciousness is closely associated with the sense of being free. Freedom implies space; it means having the power and enough room in which to act. Being free has several levels of meaning. Fundamental is the ability to transcend the present condition, and this transcendence is most simply manifest as the elementary power to move. In the act of moving, space and its attributes are directly experienced. An immobile person will have difficulty mastering even primitive ideas of abstract space, for such ideas develop out of movement–out of the direct experience of space through movement.”

So, for women writers, that means having a room of our own, as Virginia Woolf famously said, to be free to write. If we are confined by domestic responsibilities or limited to certain worlds, we cannot be free. We need allotted space just for us, a place reserved to do the work. And that is what Women Writing for (a) Change promises the community...a safe space and place to be vulnerable, to share our creative passions, to reveal ourselves and our particular view of the world.

Human Geographer Yi-Fu Tuan suggests that "place is security and space is freedom, we are attached to the one and long for the other. " Indeed. And being aware of all the possibilities that lie in that dimension is the first step twoard both safey and freedom. Art is what gives us that window into that world.

Join us as we explore ideas like "sacred" space, “biased” space, mythical space and place, time in experiential space, or cultural attachments to space, we can share a deeper awareness and apreeciation when we come together to animate our world.

Your donation and any items you purchase will help women writers and artists directly, enabling us to fund future art exhibitions like this one, as well as our fellowships, scholarships, and other accessibility programs for women artists and writers, our college and high school interns, and diverse members of this community.

Host or Publisher Women Writing for (a) Change, Jacksonville