A Room of Her Own: Women Artist-Activists in Britain, 1875–1945

In her essay, A Room of One’s Own (1929), Virginia Woolf argued that women need their own physical space, as well as sufficient income, to write fiction. Woolf exhorted women to find their creative voice, to pave the way for an imagined “Shakespeare’s sister,” an artist of genius whose work would build on the accomplishments of the creative women that came before her. Woolf also believed that this imagined poet’s creativity existed in every woman.
A Room of Her Own: Women Artist-Activists in Britain, 1875–1945 features paintings, drawings, prints, stained glass, embroidery, and other decorative arts made by twenty-five professional women artists in Great Britain who were, in fact, answering Virginia Woolf’s call during her lifetime. The exhibition explores the spaces these women claimed as their own and which furthered their artistic ambitions, including their rooms, homes, studios, art schools, clubs, and public exhibition venues. Their roles in creating change and opportunity—whether through art education, marching for women’s suffrage, protesting World War I, or creating networking opportunities for fellow artists or members of their community—is also highlighted in this presentation.
This exhibition is organized by the Clark Art Institute and curated by Alexis Goodin, Associate Curator.
Generous support for A Room of Her Own is provided by Carol and Bob Braun, Richard and Carol Seltzer, and The Tavolozza Foundation.

Dame Laura Knight, A Balloon Site, Coventry, 1943, oil on canvas. Imperial War Museum, London, IWM ART LD 2750