Women’s History Month – Honoring Downtown Bryan’s Women in Art

On March 17th, SEAD Gallery will celebrate Women’s History Month by honoring the women in art in Historic Downtown Bryan, a Texas Cultural District. The women will be honored during the opening reception for SEAD Gallery’s newest artist, Dawn Winter, a contemporary abstract artist out of Austin. In honor of Women’s History Month, the gallery is featuring the work of four Texas women artists throughout the month including Mirka Hokkanen, Denise Bossarte, Dawn Winter, and Becky Phillips.

“Women artists and supporters of the arts are breathing new life into Historic Downtown Bryan,” explains SEAD Gallery Director and AdventGX Managing Partner Joan Quintana. “It is fitting that we stop during Women’s History Month to acknowledge their contributions to cultural heritage preservation and economic revitalization through the arts in our community.”

Greta Watkins, owner of the Frame Gallery and founder of First Friday and ArtStep, Kristy Petty, founder of Art979, owner of Village Café and downtown champion, and Le Hale, owner of Purple Turtle Art Studio are among the leading women who will be on hand for the celebration. The four women artists featured at SEAD Gallery during Women’s History Month will also be on hand.

About the art: Women’s Canteen by Flora Lion, 1918. During the First World War Lion was commissioned by the British Ministry of Information to paint factory scenes on the home front. The Ministry issued permits for Lion to paint in factories in Leeds and Bradford. In Leeds she sketched scenes in a factory building wooden flying-boats. In Bradford Lion painted women working in a munitions factory, but unusually depicted them during a meal break in their works canteen, which were a war-time innovation for Britain. Although several of the women in the painting are clearly tired the overall impression is one of great confidence among the women workers.