That’s the question posed in the beginning of the trailer for Who Does She Think She Is?, a documentary film by Academy Award Winning filmmaker Pamela Tanner Boll, the co-executive producer of  Born Into Brothels.

Watching and listening to the trailer for this film really brought home for me the  gender-specific issues women face in the artistic community in terms of the devaluation and lack of recognition for their work. Take the following statistics from the film’s press kit for instance:

Source: Guerrilla Girls
• The number of professionally trained artists and art historians in the U.S. – Males 52%, Females
48%
• Percentage of artists at major institutions:
o National Gallery of Art — 98% male, 99.9% white
o National Portrait Gallery — 93% male, 99% white
o Hirshhorn Museum – modern and contemporary art — 95% male, 94% white
• Exhibition opportunities: Juried (artists unknown to juror) – Males 52%, Females 48%
• Exhibitions opportunities: Invited (artists known to juror) – Males 80%, Females 20%
• Gender distribution of visual artists in art texts – Males 90%, Females 10%
• Of the over 100 Tonys awarded since 1947 for theater direction, only 2-5% have been to women
Directors; only 2-6% to African American Directors.

Source: A Room of Her Own: A Foundation For Women Writers and Artists
• Only 9 out of 52 winners of the National Book Award for Fiction are women.
• Only 11 out of 48 winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction have been women.
• Women writers won 63% of the awards but less than 30% of the money in awards reported by
Poets & Writers. (Jan/Feb ‘03 issue).
• 94% of all the writing awards at the Oscars have gone to men.
• A recent study by the Coalition of Women’s Arts Organizations showed that in all 1-person shows
for living artists in American museums, only 2% of the featured artists are women.
• 51% of all visual artists are female and women hold 53% of art degrees, but 80% of college faculty
members are male.

~~~

The film follows the lives of 5 women and their struggle to balance family and art.

“Through their lives, we explore some of the most problematic intersections of our time: mothering and creativity, partnering and independence, economics and art. The film invites us to consider both ancient legacies of women worshipped as cultural muses and more modern times where most people can’t even name a handful of female artists.”

I do believe the value disparity between men and women artists isn’t as wide in New Orleans as in the rest of the country. We’re lucky to live in a city where art, music, food, theatre and, indeed, all genres of the creative are valued and celebrated. If only the rest of the country and the world shared our views.

This looks to be a very important and thought-provoking film and oh, how I wish it would be screened here. According to the website, the closest it will come is Atlanta. Here are the particulars:
ArtMamas Atlanta
Saturday, March 27, 2010 @ 4:30pm
The Grounds Coffee House
898 Oak Street SW Suite F
Atlanta, GA 30310
Free Admission

Update: Read Liprap’s beautiful post here about the art of Jay DeFeo.