Women and Art Education

Abstract

Art and Design Education, as a marginalised subsidiary of education today (non-core foundation subject with programmes of study and no statutory attainments) — together with the male dominance of artist role models at school, in the media (unless women artists are deemed newsworthy for alternative or additional reasons other than their work), in galleries and within mainstream art beyond school — has played and continues to play a significant role (alongside other historical and gendered factors discussed throughout the earlier sections of this book) in depressing female artistic ambition. Although Art and Design Education might be seen as the responsibility of schools, state funded public galleries also have a responsibility to provide the opportunity for the public to engage with and contemplate art at first hand; they therefore have a responsibility to provide a balanced and reflective view that also addresses issues of male dominance, ethnocentricity and Eurocentricity. Evidence of improvement in the celebration and promotion of women artists can be seen, for example, in three current (2015) women-only art exhibitions featuring the late Sonia Delaunay, the late Leonora Carrington, and Marlene Dumas (at the Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool, Tate Modern respectively) — but these artists have been overlooked for many years.