In celebration of the gallery’s 10th anniversary and the ever expanding mission of WARM, the collective embarked on planning a national conference and juried exhibition. This would be sprawling, multifaceted event. Susan McDonald was the conference coordinator and Sandra Menefee Taylor was the coordinator of the juried exhibition. In honor of these events, the WARM Journal assembled a two-part publication for all of its subscribers. This included the exhibition catalog and the WARM Journal. The WARM Journal, in addition to regular features, combined the scholarly papers presented at the conference with a conference itinerary. 

The Contemporary Woman in the Visual Arts National Conference
October 16–19, 1986
Susan McDonald, the conference coordinator, explained that the conference was “designed to examine the contributions made by women’s art organizations in the 1970s [and be] a forum for women to talk about the problems they still face in the art world.” She continued: “Unfortunately, many of the issues are the same ones that prompted the founding of WARM—and other women’s organizations—more than a decade ago … and although gains have been made … the increasing political conservatism in this country has many women fearful that the concessions they won are already fading away.”

Held at the Minneapolis Plaza Hotel, the four-day conference included plenary sessions, artist presentations, lectures and discussion groups on topics ranging from The Social Production of Art and Are Aesthetics and Politics Antithetical to Art? to Women Whose Life Patterns Cast Them as Regional Artists and Ladies Sewing Circles and Terrorist Society: The Phenomenon of Political Needlework. The conference drew more than 400 women artists and scholars from around the country.  

Conference Coordinator: Susan McDonald
Conference Presenters and Discussants: June Wayne, Janet Wolf, Carol Becker, Beth Bergman, Elise Burns, Betsy Damon, Ariel Dougherty, Sarah Evans, Ofelia Garcia, Kathy Kauffman, Estella Lauter, Muriel Magenta, Anita Mills, Beverly Naidus, Annie Shaver-Crandell, Jantje Visscher, Mary Visser, Nancy Azara, Anita Rodriguez, May Stevens, Sally Brown, Arlene Burke-Morgan, Laurie Beth Clark, Carole Fisher, Frida High, Martha Jackson-Jarvis, Gail Kendall, Sandy Maliga, Winnie Owens-Hart, Ellouise Schoettler, Naomi Scheman, Jaune Quick-To-See Smith, Zarina, Shifra Goldman, Eleanor Heartney, Sandra Langer, Elizabeth Erickson, Harriet Bart, Valerie Ellis, Elsa Honig Fine, Joanna Frueh, Diane Hellekson, Kathy Hemingway Jones, Gloria Vando Hickok, Patrice Koelsch, Margot Kriel-Galt, Patricia Mainardi, Cynthia Navarette, Judith Wilson, Marian Yeo, Hazel Belvo, Cheri Gaulke, Anne Neal Petri, Janet Kaplan, Bette J. Kaufman, Mary Kenon Breazeale, Sandra Kraskin, Leila Daw, Indira Freitas Johnson, Winnifred Owens-Hart, Pamela Zwehl-Burke, Leslie Fedorchuk, Edith L. Crowe, Suzanne Lacy, B. Ruby Rich

Women’s Sensibilities: A National Juried Exhibition
October 10–November 8, 1986 
The exhibition was massive, with 95 artists from across the United States exhibiting across two large galleries: WARM’s gallery and Dayton’s Gallery 12. Three jurors curated the works from over 2,000 slides submitted by more than 700 women artists. The exhibition was a major fundraising effort as well, requiring grants from numerous sources.

In an interview for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Sandra Taylor preemptively defended the diversity of the work being exhibited:

“The criticism will be that it’s very broad, but that’s the strength of the show. The show is designed to prove that a woman’s sensibility is not something that inhibits what she can do, but instead is a point of view that encompasses a wide range of work … I think that what it does is aptly represent the whole range—from extreme political points of view to very internal personal ones.” 

In addition to the conference and the national juried exhibition, WARM coordinated with Twin Cities museums, galleries and organizations to exhibit work by women during the conference. The full 2,000 slides of exhibition submissions were shown at one event. During each evening of the conference, attendees made excursions to exhibits and screenings in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Venues included WARM’s gallery, Dayton’s Gallery 12, the Minneapolis American Indian Center, the Minnesota Artist Exhibition Program at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, the College of St. Catherine, Augsburg College, Macalester College and Anderson and Anderson Gallery.

Exhibition Coordinator: Sandra Menefee Taylor
Exhibiting Artists:  Judith Abernathy, Iris Adler, Ann Stewart Anderson, Ruth Ingeborg Andris, Barbara Aubin, Betsy Bauer, Carolyn Barry, Carol Chase Bjerke, Barbara A. Bloy, Cheryl Bowers, Sally Brown, Sandi Seltzer Bryant, Jan Buckman, Irma Cavat, Ann Chernow, Kathryn Cihak, Barbara Cooper, Regina Corritore, Barbara J. Crawford, Leila Daw, Jacqueline Dreager, Clarice Dreyer, Cheryl Kolak Dudek, Rebecca Ekstrand, Linda Elwood, Gwen Fabricant, Joan Fitzsimmons, Ellen A. Fountain, Louise Francke, Irene Gennaro, Jan Spivey Gilchrist, Jane Gilmore, Janet Goldner, Deb Gordon, Susan Grabel, Linda Griffith, Sherry Hart, Donna Henes, Antoinette He’rival, Carol Berger Hershman, Gladys E. Holmes, Judith Eisenstadt Horwich, Carol Jacobsen, Kathy Hemingway Jones, Angie Klidzejs, Louise Kamer, Linda Kroff, Susan Landgraf, Nelleke Langhout-Nix, Sharon Libes, J. C. Lipchik, M. Florence Long, Pam Longobardi, Gloria Longval, Jean Loy-Swanson, Joyce Lyon, Linda Williams McCune, Susan S. McDonald, Penny McElroy, Lynne Menturweck, Ann Meredith, Ruth Aizuss Migdal, Laura E. Migliorino, Pamela Miles-Kenny, Lisa N. Morphew, Jean Murakami, Kathy Neff, Kat O'Brien, Meg Ojala, Suzanne Olmsted, Quimetta Perle, Barbara R. Pollack, Marylu Raushenbush, Elisabeth Relin, Judith Roode, Linda L. Rother, Diane Rusnak, Wanda Schackmann-Flechsig, Linda Schlecht, Susan Marie Schlough, Jill Seguin, Peggy Smith-Venturi, Karen Spitsbergen-Richardson, Cynthia Starkweather-Nelson, Sally Stein, Jini Tanenhaus, Sandra Ferguson Taylor, Sandra Menefee Taylor, Maggie Terry-Viale, Jantje Visscher, Krista Kelley Walsh, Linda Weinbaum, Karon Hagemeister Winzenz