Art in the March

International Woman's Day March, Art in the March,
March 6th, 1993 Calgary Alberta

This is a 25 year old archive. Now, in 2018 we stand together energetically with the
ME TOO and TIME'S UP MOVEMENT!

All photos of Art in the March by Judy Cheung

"March 6,1993 marked the end of a lengthly planning process for five Calgary artists.... This year, International Women's Day was celebrated by some 800 marchers, many of whom bore, wore, pushed or performed personal banners celebrating their response to the event. Art in the March, the committee that conceived of and organized the visual component of IWD, grew out of the belief that art-in particular, feminist art-can integrate with and enhance political action. By focusing media attention and coordinating involvement by local women's and visual arts groups, Art in The March contributed significantly to the air of excitement, celebration, and solidarity that was present in this year's event.
Art in the March is the project of five recent graduates of Alberta College of Art: Mary Lou Riordon-Sello, Joan Caplan, Lorrie Wager, Susan Harrison, and Dianna Zasadny."

   Amy Gogarty
   ART IN THE MARCH
     Celebrating Our Different Voices
Artichoke magazine summer 1993
ç Amy Gogarty

"IWD is an annual day of celebration in which Women celebrate themselves, their work, women of the past, women of the future. Having a call for banners was a great way to get the community all working together....it has brought out a lot of voices and issues. There is a real diversity within the Calgary feminist community, and there is acceptance for all these voice. That's what happened today; we had all our voices out there. There was a lot of solidarity and a lot of fun."

Mary Lou Riordon-Sello, Art in the March

"While the events themselves were great fun, the specific social issues addressed by marchers indicated the seriousness of the occasion. International Women's Day, March 8, commemorates a successful strike in 1907 by women workers at a garment factory, in which a contract to improve working conditions was won. The strike was precipitated by a fire that killed a number of women trapped by locked doors in the factory. Similar sorts of barbaric conditions continue to dominate the lives of many women both at home and abroad, as was demonstrated by the number of women's groups that took part in the March."

ART IN THE MARCH
Celebrating our Different Voices
Amy Gogarty
Artichoke magazine summer 1993

Annual International Woman's Day March and Rally begins inside the Calgary Municipal Building,
hosted By Mary Lou Riordon -Sello, introducing the speakers.

"For those who missed the March or who wished to get a better look at various banners, the installations at the four venues served very well.. The Municipal Building atrium displayed the banners of the more well-known organizations- the Women's Inter-church Council, The women's Committee of the Calgary and District Labour Council, and the Calgary Birth Control Association. For the most part, these banners were well crafted and direct in their message. Displaying them in City Hall, where they would be noticed by downtown workers and the general public, was a strategic decision, as it conveyed a sense of mainstream support for the goals of IWD. A few pleasant surprises-The Lesbian Mothers' Support Society banner and the colourful, often sharply political, squares quilted by volunteers at the Women's Resource Centre- served to remind people that the Women's movement is broadly based and inclusive. Janine Hall's frieze of jubilant women was installed in one of the plus 15 windows of the Performing Arts Centre."

   ART IN THE MARCH
   Celebrating our different voices
   Amy Gogarty
   Artichoke magazine, summer 1993
ç Amy Gogarty

"Some 40 staff members at the Calgary Sexual Assault Centre each chose a women from "herstory" who had personally inspired them: Marie Curie, Mary Wollstonecraft, Audrey Lorde (Author, poet, black activist), and Manon Rheaume (first woman to play NHL Hockey) were among the women chosen. Each woman's achievement was researched, and recognized by a banner, which was carried by a staff member who often dressed the part as well. Restoring the record of other women's courage and accomplishment inspired these women, who confront difficult circumstances in their workplace on a daily basis."

   Amy Gogarty
   ART IN THE MARCH
   Celebrating Our Different Voices
   Artichoke magazine, summer 1993

ART IN THE MARCH QUILT PROJECT YWCA organized by Janet Matthews

Glenbow Museum

Janine Hall's frieze of jubilant women was installed in one of the plus 15 windows of the Performing Arts Centre

..."A welcome note of hilarity was struck by the Spring Board Dance Collective's We Weren't All Meant To Be Pink Flamingos. Wearing hot pink leotards with feathery bum wraps, and, at times - black rubber flippers - the dancers enacted madcap parodies of feminine deportment, Latino dirty dancing, tangos,and other assorted actions. The parodies succeeded due to the obvious skill and control of the dancers. A more serious note was struck by Homa Niroobakhsh, with I Was Born A Girl. Her poignant appeal to Canadian women asked for support for about-to-be-deported Iranian women whose crime was to crave a tiny bit of the freedom taken for granted by the audience.
   This appeal was but one further reminder of the terrifying, repressive conditions that govern the lives of many women, despite the encouraging advances made in developed countries. If there is a message to come out of events such as International Women's Day, it must be to begin to seriously address these conditions. All to often, we accept our own well-being and success, or see them as reason enough to abandon the original goals of the women's movement. Reminders such as Homa's are calls to action to keep up the fight for equality and respect for human rights, regardless of gender, world-wide. Hopefully. IWD through such inclusive organizing strategies as Art In The March, will grow in strength and effectiveness, and women will find support in sisters around the world to combat sexism, child abuse, racism, and terror. The March in Calgary is part of a global effort to regenerate and change the world- let's all work to see it grow!"

   ART IN THE MARCH
   Celebrating Our Different Voices
   Amy Gogarty
   Artichoke Magazine summer 1993
ç Amy Gogarty

"Well-known artists also contributed to the event. Barbara Todd and her son Louis Century, from Banff, carried a lively quilt based on Louis' drawings of moons, stars, birds and airplanes which read "The sky is for birds, not missiles". Mireille Perron and Lorne Falk distributed brightly coloured cotton gloves with the message "You are safe in hands, yours". During the performance evening at The New Gallery, participants were requested to write their names on the card inside and to pin the glove on a giant map of Alberta.
During the March, Leslie Sweder and thirteen friends performed Hologynics, in which she travelled along a designated route carrying galvanized pails on a bamboo yoke. Along the route, each of her friends stepped forward to contribute a resin-covered apple to her bucket. The performance was videotaped by Colleen Kerr, and the tape, buckets, dirt, and apples were installed in the alcove of The New Gallery. The performance blended medieval elements of folklore, witchcraft,and women's wisdom with a sobering image of the scapegoat- as well as positive images of friendship and the reclamation of personal history. A more boisterous performance was enacted by the gargantuan figures of the Green Fools, Christine Cook and Dean Bareham. The garishly tarted-up Pierrette and her cadaverous partner on stilts contributed a special merrymaking and burlesque."

ART IN THE March
Celebrating Our Different Voices
Amy Gogarty
Artichoke magazine summer 1993
ç Amy Gogarty

Newspaper Articles

Calgary Herald, March 7th, 1993 Front Page

Calgary Herald, March 7th, 1993