About WARM

WARM: Where women artists connect, learn and thrive.

WARM connects emerging and professional women artists, encouraging them to create and exhibit art and to increase their participation in the art world.

As a catalyst for women artists to assist each other in achieving their goals, WARM promotes and provides advocacy and assistance for its member’s projects. Membership is open to all who support WARM’s mission, whether you are an artist or not.

WARM Board Meeting

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

7:00-9:00pm

Playwrights’ Center (conference room)

2301 E. Franklin Ave., Minneapolis, 55406

All board meetings are open to WARM members. Those interested in attending should email Bethany Whitehead at president@thewarm.org. A schedule of 2012 WARM board meetings can be found at this link.

 

WARM Board of Directors
History of WARM

WARM Board of Directors

Bethany Whitehead
President

Bethany is a strong believer that women artists are an important part of our culture and the art world as a whole, extending beyond what art history books would lead one to believe. She holds a BA from Kalamazoo College in International Studies and Women’s Studies and a MA in Arts Administration. Working in fundraising and special events planning for the past ten years, including leading the membership program at the Walker Art Center for five years, and is currently the membership manager at The Playwrights’ Center.    She has served on the WARM board since 2006 and has been the board president since 2008.

Phyllis Burdette
Treasurer
Phyllis is a Certified Public Accountant and managing partner of Burdette Knoll, LLC, a local CPA firm serving both Metropolitan and outstate Minnesota.   She has a BA in accounting from Metro State University.  Since achieving her CPA in 1981, Phyllis has been kept busy helping individuals, businesses and nonprofit organizations better manage their accounting, tax and financial matters.   She is a member of the American Institute of CPA’s, MN Society of CPA’s, and American Woman’s Society of CPA’s and currently serves on the accounting advisory board for two business universities as well as adjunct faculty for Lorman Education.

She shows her support of the arts by serving as a volunteer treasurer for WARM and has been actively involved in leadership roles with other nonprofit  organizations.   She believes in sound fiscal management  and is dedicated to maintaining accountability and transparency in the nonprofit sector.

Lindsy Halleckson
Board Member
Lindsy has worked in fundraising or arts organizations in the Twin Cities, including the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and Ordway Center.  As painter and installation artist, she has shown her work in solo and group exhibitions across the country.  Currently an MBA candidate at the University of St. Thomas, she hopes to create a closer connections between the arts and business communities.

Robyn Hendrix
Exhibitions Co-Chair
Robyn is an emerging artist in Minneapolis, MN.  She makes playfully quirky, semi-abstract watercolor paintings inspired by landscape, nature and science. Robyn received a BA in Studio Art from Carleton College in 2005 with a concentration in Women’s and Gender Studies.  She participated in the Artist Development project in 2010 to take the  “Work of Art” professional development workshop series offered by Springboard for the Arts.  Her work has been included in exhibits at Susan Hensel Gallery, Intermedia Arts, Women and Water Rights at the Katherine G. Nash Gallery, the WARM exhibitions series at the Minnesota Women’s Building, and a solo show at the Baroque Room. Robyn has also volunteered in the past with the Soap Factory and is a member of NEMAA.

Robyn has served on the WARM exhibitions committee for several years, became Co-Chair in the spring 2011 and joined the WARM Board in January 2012. Robyn does part-time work as a social media consultant for artists and arts organizations and contributes to WARM’s social media presence. In summer 2011 she was selected as a placemaking artist for the Friendly Streets Initiative with Springboard for the Arts and is currently managing social media marketing for Irrigate, an Artplace funded project mobilizing artists in creative placemaking along the Central Corridor in St. Paul.

Cara Madsen
Board Member
Cara has worked and instructed classes throughout Minnesota in variety of art mediums, utilizing nature and the outdoors.  She holds a BA and MA in Business/Organizational Leadership in Women’s studies.  She brings years of nonprofit experience in fundraising, event planning, leadership and career development for women.  As the Executive Director for “She is…”, an organization which offers events for women, she facilitates events which offer empowerment, encouragement and enthusiasm for women in many avenues of recreation from outdoor adventures to creative retreats. Cara is thrilled to serve on the WARM board and brings a variety of experience to the WARM organization.

Tina Nemetz
Board Member

Alis Olsen
Exhibitions Co-Chair
Alis Olsen is an environmental sculptor who uses natural materials to create work the explores our relationship with nature.  She began her art career as a photographer and received her MFA in 1983 at the University of Minnesota.  After purchasing land in Wisconsin, she started to  experiment with outdoor installations which led to her sculptural pieces.

She has exhibited widely and teaches environmental workshops in various outdoor settings, including the land that she now owns in southern Colorado. She was founder and director of WOODSWORK, a project that has artists creating installations in natural settings. She gives illustrated talks on environmental art done around the world. She is an active member of several arts groups including WARM and served for many years as a mentor to beginning artists.

Debra Ripp
Board Member
Debra brings her experience working with artist centered organizations to the WARM Board. Her artistic focus has evolved from concentrating on painting, printmaking and drawing to a collage aesthetic.  In addition to being an artist, she works for Rise, Inc. as a job coach/supervisor for adults with disabilities.  Prior to joining WARM, Debra earned a BFA from the University of Minnesota and an MFA from the University of Iowa. She has served as a Programming Manager and Board Member for the Wisconsin Chapter of the Women’s Caucus for Art.  She has also served as Interim Assistant Director for the Programming Board at St. Cloud State University and as a NEMAA Building Captain during Art-A-Whirl at the 2010 ARTBLOK . Debra is pleased to serve on the WARM Board in its goal of supporting women artists in their professional development.

Marcie Soderman-Olson
Board Member
Art making, art education, art history, and women in art have been the exclusive focus of Marcie’s 30-year career. Her training as a visual artist (MFA, 2002) and as an art historian (MA, PhD., 1988, 2000) work synergistically for her, with an inter-disciplinary approach incorporated into her teaching and mentoring. Marcie is a professional painter exhibiting on a regualr basis, a WARM mentor since 2008, a curator/organizer of seven exhibitions, Hamline University adjunct faculty, and a former museum educator. She has over 20 years of experience as a college instructor of painting and drawing, modern and contemporary art history, and women in art. Marcie has also served as an artist-in-residence in over 20 St. Paul schools. As a result, she has had the joy of sharing her love of art with all age groups.
Some of the highlights of Marcie’s career include selection by juror Lucy Lippard in the on-going travel exhibition, Women and Water Rights: Rivers of Regeneration (2009-2012); work appearing in the juried publications, Studio Visit, 2010, and International Contemporary Artists, 2011; and, by invitation, the cover- and feature-artist for the Summer 2011 issue of Exploring TOSCA, a Twin Cities arts magazine.

Deborah Splain
Board Member
Deborah is a  Minnesota artist residing in the northwest suburbs of Minneapolis, Deborah Splain draws from her experiences and environment to create her artwork.  She has had a solo show at Atwood Memorial Gallery in St. Cloud and has shown her work at the Bloomington Center for the Arts, Edina Art Center, and Banfill-Locke Art Center as well as displaying at Altered Esthetics, Art-A-Whirl, St. Paul Art Crawl, and at Art Per Chance MIA.   Her work has been seen this past year at University of Minnesota Larson Gallery, and in March, at MacRostie Art Center, Grand Rapids Minnesota. The artist donates her work to raise money for Breast Cancer Events, the Children’s Theatre, and Make a Wish foundation. She is a lifelong artist and teacher, whose art work has evolved and is currently exploring both figurative and abstract.

Her work reflects her own unique style, using a variety of mixed media to create meanings under hidden layers of paint, paper, are added by the artist but meant for the interpretation of the viewer. She plans on teaching some art classes in the spring and summer and was granted a partial scholarship for the Women’s Art Institute Studio Intensive Program for the Summer.  She is devoting herself full-time to her painting preparing work for shows in the fall as well as one scheduled show for January 2012.

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WARM Program Coordinators and Staff

Lynn Speaker
Mentor Program Co-Coordinator
Lynn has developed a process of image making that utilizes gunpowder as a medium. This work is an extension of her exploration of elemental ‘drawing’ materials, such as fire, smoke, natural earth pigments and charcoals. Through this process she examines the primal qualities of mark making in a contemporary context.
Lynn received her Master of Fine Arts degree from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and is a recipient of a 2007 Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant. Her studio is located in the Grain Belt Bottling House in Northeast Minneapolis, where she carefully explores the boundaries of her chosen medium.

Jeanne Souldern
Administrative and Communications Coordinator
Jeanne is a writer of poetry, short stories, and comedy and is working on honing her artist skills through painting, tile-making, and zine-making.

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History of WARM

by WARM mentor, Alis Olsen

WARM was formally created in 1973 by women who started by hosting informal meetings in artist’s homes. The founding mothers were influenced by Judy Chicago’s 1973 lecture, “Why Aren’t There Great Women Artists?”  The lecture raised questions about the presence of women in the arts and the importance of a specialized art education for women. The artists founded WARM specifically to provide such a venue.

WARM was created to be a cooperative gallery similar to New York’s A.I.R. and Los Angeles’s Grandview. Instead of organizing protests and public demonstrations like the Guerrilla Girls did, WARM artists supported each other in order to bring women to the forefront of their local art community.

In 1976, the women of WARM opened a gallery at 414 First Avenue North in Minneapolis. This gallery space provided Minneapolis women artists the opportunity to exhibit freely what would not have been allowed in a more mainstream environment at a time when women faced alienation from the art community.

In 1982, the acclaimed Mentor Program was instated and has lasted as the collective’s greatest accomplishment for the artist community. The brainchild of Judith Roode, it was created to give women the opportunity to learn from other successful women as they grew as artists. The program paired an established, successful WARM mentor with her protégée. The Mentor Program remains active today, imparting real world lessons in self promotion, exhibit curating, and career development to young Minnesotans.

In 1986, WARM organized The Contemporary Woman in the Visual Arts, a multidisciplinary conference that hosted more than 400 artists, art historians, and critics. In attendance were June Wayne, Janet Wolff, B. Ruby Rich, Nancy Azara, and Sandra Langer.

Through the1990s, WARM had the honor of hosting the first feminist show in the Twin Cities. WARM raised feminist awareness and efforts in the Minneapolis arts scene, sponsoring exhibitions and workshops, shaping art criticism, revitalizing neighborhoods, and fostering an artist community. WARM has been the host of lectures and symposiums, bringing nationally recognized critics and artists such as Alice Neal, Marsha Tucker, Harmony Hammond, Lucy Lippard, and Robin Morgan to the Twin Cities area.

WARM’s First Avenue Gallery space closed in 1991, but the mentoring community created by the founding mothers continued to provide opportunities for young art professionals to grow and establish themselves in the Twin Cities. WARM has risen to the forefront of the art community in Minnesota, and it has created an environment that will continue to assist local female artists in the future.

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