Looking back to look forward. 

I felt a sense of urgency throughout this project to document and share the earliest history of the Women’s Art Registry of Minnesota (WARM). The Roots and Fruits exhibition was proposed in early 2017, just weeks after a divisive presidential inauguration, and it opened just days before one of the most important midterm elections in my lifetime. I continued to feel a sense of urgency not only because of our political climate, but also because the women in this exhibition, who have been community leaders for decades, had waited long enough for this story, herstory, to be shared. History is made by real people, people we likely know, people like us. These people are our teachers, our colleagues and our friends, but their history fades away if we don’t make the effort to preserve it, to share it, to keep it alive, to learn from it, to propel us forward. 

History is made in flyover states. Perhaps you’ve heard of Judy Chicago, Miriam Schapiro, Woman’s Building and A.I.R. Gallery? These women artists and feminist art collectives on the coasts gained national recognition for the ways they contributed to the development of the Feminist Art Movement. Minnesota women artists were no less active or successful than their better-recorded counterparts. This project sought to begin filling that gap in documentation. As an artist, an archivist and a curator, I wanted to document and preserve this story (and hopefully others in the future) to draw some conclusions about how it shaped the present and may in turn affect the future, to better understand how we fit into the continuum of history.

In thinking about WARM’s story in relation to the history of future generations, I questioned: can we look at what was to know what may be possible again? If these women could change the course of history decades ago, could we do it again today? What can we learn from their methods and processes, failures and successes? How far have we come and how far do we have to go? Who is out there carrying this torch and passing it on? These are the questions behind the questions of my historical research. I’m not a politician, I’m not able to be a philanthropist, but this I can do. I can keep striving to answer these questions, sharing what I find. 

This project started in 2016, while I was working as a graduate assistant for the St. Catherine University Fine Art Collection. Handling the artworks, cataloging and searching the databases, I kept picking up thread after thread of the intertwining stories of WARM artists—connecting the people, places and events that make up the historical structure of the Women’s Art Registry of Minnesota. While that provided the outline, it was the experiences and memories of the women of WARM that made the history vibrant. I think this project had been waiting for someone to be ready to take it on, waiting for someone to pick up the torch. I came to know that because of the enormous swell of support, enthusiasm, gratitude and guidance that was extended to me by the members of the registry as the exhibition came together. 

Although I, too, am a “fruit” of WARM, Roots and Fruits was not about me or my curatorial vision. This was an exhibition about the women of the registry and the ripple effect of their actions through the last four decades. One of my goals was to make myself as invisible as possible in the exhibition. While I provided the structure and parameters, the artists themselves chose the artworks to be exhibited; the pieces they felt represented the concepts. In the Roots side of the exhibition, whenever possible, all the names of the women involved in a timeline event were represented. To include the voices of even more WARM artists, a digital slideshow, open to any type of member past or present, was created. Intended to be a digital registry of the registry, I hope it will continue to grow beyond this show. 

I have only scratched the surface of the story of WARM, and this exhibition was just a beginning.

– Heather Carroll, curator

The exhibition Roots and Fruits: Exploring the History and Impact of the Women's Art Registry of Minnesota was held at The Catherine G. Murphy Gallery at St. Catherine University, November 3 - December 15, 2018. The exhibition spanned both gallery spaces: the west gallery dedicated to the early history—or the roots—of WARM, arranged as a timeline of significant events of the early years; the east gallery dedicated to tracing just a few threads of influence—or the fruits—of WARM. This digital catalog documents the exhibition, further filling the gap of knowledge about the role of Minnesota artists in the Feminist Art Movement in America. 

Note: All photography included in this catalog is by Heather Carroll unless otherwise noted. All images of artworks in this catalog are used with the permission of the artist, owner or institution. All artwork copyrights are retained by the artists or lending institutions.