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Sharron Come: From SolitaryArtist To Radical FeministNoelle Boughton

Sharron Corne parle de la penurie defemmes artistes dans Ies arts traditionnels et suggere des strategies susceptibles d'apporter des changements.

1975 was International Women'sYear. Poor day care, unequal payand property-sharing were wellknown issues. But the idea ofwoman as a separate entity in thearts was relatively new. It was inhonour of IWY 1975 that theWinnipeg Art Gallery Women'sCommittee planned an exhibit ofhow women were portrayed duringthe 19th and 20th centuries.

When Winnipeg artist Sharron

Corne read about the event, she wasfurious. Since virtually all recognized artists before 1960 were male,why use money meant to further thestatus of women - to display maleart?Corne and eight colleaguespointed out the problem. Little didshe know she would be in a majorpublic controversy that changed thecourse of her life in the followingmonths.

Neither the director of the gallerynor the Women's Committee wasopen to changing the show. Aftersome debate, Corne's group decidedto ask for its own exhibit space. InMay, director Roger Selby agreedand the show date was set forNovember 1975.

The task was almost impossible.Most galleries take 18 to 24 monthsto mount an exhibit. The Women'sCommittee had $10,000 - a fulltime curator and more than 100volunteers. In contrast, Corne andcolleagues (now only four) - inexperienced and with no money,applied for a federal grant.In mid-August when hope seemedgone, a cheque for $9,500 arrivedand the first national juried exhibitby women artists in Canada was on- Woman as Viewer.By this time, Corne and arthistorian Marion Yeo were workingalone, trying to locate women artists, their slides, judge them andsend out notices for the show.Within 10 weeks, working day and

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night, they solicited 400 applications. Corne and Yeo had launchedtheir search for a 'very special kindof work - feminist, howwomenviewed themselves and theirworld.'Meanwhile, the search for moneycontinued. Although they turned up$5,000 from the Manitoba government and $2,500 from the city ofWinnipeg, other complicationsarose. Director Selby insisted thegallery appoint a juror - a maledirector of the university ar t schoolwas chosen.Three weeks before the show, thenational artists association threatened to boycott and picket the exhibitunless $2,500 in rental fees werepaid. Budget gone, Corne and Yeocould do nothing to stop the protestuntil Canada Council providedfunds.As if that were not enough - theprinter refused to do the showcatalogue because it had pictures ofmale nudes. Then a mail strike caused Toronto artist Badanna Zack'swork to arrive late and Selby refused to allow her series of aluminummale genitals to appear in the show.He pleaded lack of curator's timebut Corne still believes he wascensoring the art.Finally, Woman as Viewer opened.Press reports claimed itwas themost successful exhibit theWinnipeg Art Gallery had done intwo years. Victory. But Corne wasdepressed. For the first time in herlife she had done battle in publicand loved it. She had dedicated herenergies to the cause of art and nowshe was faced with returning to hersecluded family life and studio.But solitude did not last long. TheManitoba Provincial Council ofWomen asked Corne to chairits Artsand Letters committee and realizinggroups make more progress than individuals, Corne accepted. Her project: a study of the status of womenin Manitoba arts institutions.Combing through the libraries ofthe WinnipegArt Gallery,ManitobaArts Council,Manitoba Departmentof PublicWorks (then commissioning art), and the School of Art at theUniversity of Manitoba, Corne turned up a bleak picture.While more than 70 per cent of

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the University's fine ar t graduateswere women, onlytwo of the seventeen professors in the faculty werefemale; in five years, the WinnipegArt Gallery had thirty-six oneperson exhibits bu t ony twofeatured works by women; of theforty board members for the ArtGallery, only ten were women; andof the twelve members of theManitoba Arts Council, only threewere female.After presenting her report to theprovincial cabinet in March 1977,the MAC endorsed Corne's recommendations. She called for an affirmative action program to betterrepresent women artists in shows,selectionjuries, school staff andboards and committees dealing withthe arts.Selby called the survey inadequate and challenged Corne'sstatistics. Arts Council directorErnest Stigant saidwomen did notget asmany grants asmen becausethey did not apply for them.Corne revamped the report forlobbying purposes in 1978 usinginstitution statistics and reactionwas limited. The Arts Council wasmore concerned with living wagesfor all artists and theWinnipegArtGallery did not respond. OnlyManitoba's Minister of CulturalAffairs, Norma Price, offered anyhope.When Corne told Price if nothingwas done, publicworks grantswould continue to discriminateagainst women, she was amazed tohear the minister agree. Priceagreed to educate the institutionsshe funded.Corne's report to the FederalCultural Policy Review Committeein June 1981 (on behalf of theNational Council ofWomen) showsslim advances. In 1980, theWinnipeg Art Gallery had eight oneperson shows - three by women,two of whom were dead and thethird wasAmerican. Between 1976and 1979 - 10.5 per cent of thework added to the gallery's permanent collection was by women; in1979-80 that had risen to 24 percent. The ManitobaArts Council'sjurors were reduced from one-thirdto no women. The University ofManitoba's School of Art had one

professor teachingwomen's arthistory bu t when she went on sabbatical in 1978-79, the coursewasdiscontinued.In spite of this 'Things do seem tobe looking up, ' muses Corne, bu tshe quickly adds, lIt 's good, bu t notadequate.' Her report still calls forincentives for women artists andquotas to include women in funding, teaching" and governing the arts;inclusion of women's content ineducational programs and specialmeasures to mount women'sexhibits.The Canadian Advisory Councilon the Status ofWomen is also preparing another study in the samefield. The London Art Gallery plansa second national juried exhibit ofwomen's art.It has been a dynamic period.Looking back to 1975 she remembers that in only months she waspropelled from being a solitarypainter of sexual images she barelyunderstood - to radical feminist.Now she is the speaker for thewoman artist in Canada as a paidmember of the prestigious NationalCapital Commission Advisory Committee on the Arts.But more than this, Corne hasgrown as an artist. She is no longerafraid of the meaning of her sexualwork and how friends and familywill react. Now, she has the confidence to present her work atMontreal's PowerhouseGallery.Recently she approached SaturdayNight editor Robert Fulford and coworker JoanMurray to be includedin their book on erotic art.How this new assertiveness willaffect Corne's art is yet to be seen.After six years of politics, she hopesto return to her studio full-time, tothe working world of art, redefinedas a mother, wife, artist and most ofall, as a woman.1 Splendor in the Grass,16" x 20",Acrylic on Board,Womb and Phallus Series,By Sharron Corne

2 Double Rape,36" x 48"Acrylic on canvasWomb and Phallus Series,Sharron Corne

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