YWCA Women’s Art Gallery

The YWCA Women’s Art Gallery was established in 1993. Its purpose is to empower local women artists. Although primarily serving the Greater Cincinnati area, the gallery has been proud to host several shows featuring women artists from around the world. As a forum for women’s issues relating to important YWCA programs and services, the gallery has sponsored photographic exhibits on the topics of domestic violence, breast cancer, and women and aging. It is the only gallery in Greater Cincinnati exclusively for women’s art. The gallery features local, national and international exhibits. The co-curators are Carmen Politis and Martha Weber.  The Women’s Art Gallery is free and open to the public from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday through Friday and by appointment after hours and on Saturday.

The Women's Art Gallery is located in downtown Cincinnati, 898 Walnut Street, 45202, at the corner of 9th and Walnut across from the Public Library. For more information, call the YWCA at (513) 241-7090.

Everyone has talent.
What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads. 

-Erica Jong 

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Current Exhibit

March 23 - June 7

Opening Reception
Friday, March 23, 2012 6:00-8:00 p.m. 
Wine & hors d’oeuvres will be served.
Please RSVP (513) 241-7090 or kgreene@ywcacin.org

Joanna Barnett’s 30-year battle with Bipolar Disorder left her isolated and depressed, with feelings of intense inadequacy. Trained in life drawing, painting and portraiture, and working in a variety of mediums and styles, this talented artist continually struggled with the extreme emotions caused by her condition. At a particularly low period, her therapist suggested that she “just draw” what she felt. Joanna, age 40, challenged herself to draw a self-portrait every day for 40 days. She found that “after a while, there was no face in the mirror, only an energy shaped by mood and event, and as the variations and changes multiplied, I began to see that this was a visual portrayal of my illness—I was a personality caught in a kaleidoscope.”

The YWCA Women’s Art Gallery invites you to go with us on an insightful journey into this strong and talented woman’s chaotic existence. We are fortunate to exhibit the collection of original works and commentary in its entirety through the generosity of her grandniece, Alison Bushman. We think you will agree that 40 Self-Portraits in 40 Days is a creative, poignant and real portrayal of mental illness.

On Permanent Display on the YWCA First Floor
Wise Women
A Celebration of Courage, Strength and Beauty

The photography of Joyce Tenneson

Forty The YWCA Women’s Art Gallery proudly presents Wise Women, portraits by internationally acclaimed photographer Joyce Tenneson. Wise Women is a celebration of the power and beauty of women in the third phase of their lives (ages 65 to 100.) Rather than the frail stereotype of aging that our society has fostered in the past, Tenneson found women who were vital, energetic and deeply beautiful, inside and out. This penetrating collection of portraits leaves the viewer with a new vision of what it means to be a woman of age and wisdom. No one who experiences Wise Women will think about aging in the same way again.

Forty photographs will be on display including Angela Lansbury, Dr. Johnetta Cole, Cicely Tyson, Coretta Scott King, Dame Judi Dench, Gloria Steinem, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Jessica Tandy and more.

Described as one of America’s most interesting portrayers of the human character, Joyce Tenneson is among the most respected photographers of our time. Her portraits go beyond a surface recording of her subject’s likeness. She writes, “Through a person’s face we can potentially see everything – the history and depth of a person’s life as well as their connection to a universal spirituality.”

Ms. Tenneson received her doctorate degree from Cincinnati’s Union Institute & University. Her work appears regularly on magazine covers for The New York Times, Premiere, Fortune, Time and countless other publications. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the International Center of Photography’s Infinity Award, named “Photographer of the Year” by the international organization Women in Photography, and a recent poll by American Photo Magazine voted Tenneson among the ten most influential women photographers in the history of photography. She lives and works in New York City.

This exhibit has been sponsored by Union Institute & University and underwritten by Olay, Fine Arts Fund, Barbra Druffel, the H.B., E.W. and F.R. Luther Charitable Foundation of Fifth Third Bank, and in honor of Jean Wolf, Nancy Gladstone, Pat Wolf and Mary Levin.

 Past Exhibits

Year 2012 (View more here) 

• Winter Solace, January 20 - March 15, 2012, Trina Feldhake and Kim Flora

Year 2011 (View more here) 

• Celebrating 20 Years of Empowering Women Artists, October 14, 2011 - January 13, 2012, Hei-Kyung Byun, Lynn Carden, Claire Darley, Diane Fishbein,Suzanne Fisher, April Foster, Margot Gotoff, Ali Hansen, Eunshin Khang, Velma Morris, Joyce Phillips Young, Carmen Politis, Patricia Renick, Brenda Richardson, Mary Ann Roach Butkovich, Ursula Roma, Leslie Shiels, Anne Straus, Martha Weber, Dottie Weil, McCrystle Wood, Mary Woodworth
• Ali-ce's Mad Hatter Tea Party, June 17 - September 16, 2011, Ali Hansen and friends
• Faces and Forms in Fiber, April 15 - June 10, 2011, Catherine Beckman, Ginny Bolte, Dee Bruggeman, Mary Anne Caplinger, Judy Dominic, Kelly Frigard, Pam Gregory, Pat Maley, Cynthia Malor-Sturdevant, Nancy Sullivan Morgan, Barbara Moss, Gun-Marie Nalsen, Teresa Nieberding, Mary Lynn Phillips, Linda Rouse, Barbara Sferra, Grace Sferra, Millie Stratton, Carolyn Tindal, M. Katherine Uetz, Julee Uhrig, Nance Widdowson, Judy Workman
• Contemplating the Spaces Between, January 21 - April 8, 2011, Tina Tammaro, Laurence Deprez-Zenezini 

Year 2010 (View more here)