Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series

Inspired by the women's movement of the 1960s, the women's movement in art began by 1970 to work toward equal representation and recognition of women in contemporary art, and greater inclusiveness in art education. This impulse created the climate for the beginning of the Women Artists Series at the Mabel Smith Douglass Library, Douglass College, Rutgers University. Rutgers' New Brunswick campus already had a vibrant reputation in the contemporary art world, having provided a home for innovators like Allan Kaprow, Roy Lichtenstein, Lucas Samaras and George Segal (1) . However, the painter Joan Snyder (Douglass College, 1962 and Rutgers MFA) observed in 1971 that the studio art students of the all-female Douglass College had no female mentors or role models: all the full-time art faculty were male, and the college gallery exhibited only male artists. Snyder contacted Daisy Brightenback (later Shenholm, Douglass College, 1944), the director of the Mabel Smith Douglass Library, to ask if an exhibition of women artists could be held in the lobby and corridors of the library. Brightenback was enthusiastic, and enlisted Lynn F. Miller, a new reference librarian, to serve as coordinator while Snyder served as curator. The 1971/1972 season began with an exhibition of the works of Mary Heilmann and featured altogether eight artists, including Snyder. The Series was one of the first exhibition series in the US dedicated to women artists and the first on the east coast. It provided a venue for women artists, whose works were not shown in mainstream galleries, and created an opportunity for women artists and Douglass College students to interact. Soon the Series captured the attention of the media and the art world beyond Rutgers (2) . It remains the longest-running continuous series of exhibitions in the United States dedicated to women artists.

The first season's success led to subsequent seasons, along with expanded budgets and fundraising activities. A deliberate attempt was made to exhibit both established and emerging artists; each season typically featured artists at very different stages in their careers, with artists receiving their first solo exhibitions alongside the likes of Louise Bourgeois, Alice Neel and Nancy Spero. The first annual catalog was published in the second season, funded by the exhibiting artists themselves. A grant from the New Jersey Council on the Humanities in 1974/1975 allowed for the establishment of educational outreach programs, and the recruitment of catalog essayists including Linda Nochlin (3), Lucy Lippard (4) and Lawrence Alloway (5) (6) . A series of group exhibitions of New Jersey women artists began in 1974/1975. By 1976 the Series was being discussed in major art periodicals such as Art in America (7) and Arts Magazine (8) .

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