Feminist arts and craftivism

Opening spaces for dialogue, respect and recognition in the museum

Abstract

Abstract

My article explores the potential of the feminist adult education practices in the Museum Frauenkultur Regional - International in Fürth, Germany to create spaces for women to discuss and raise questions about gender but also artistic inequality and difference. I show how we use specific exhibitions and feminist pedagogical approaches to challenge the ongoing Western gendered binary between art and ‘craft’. I also discuss how we curate and present side-by-side works of feminist resistance art and Indigenous women as a means to move away from normative hierarchies. I argue that our combined feminist curatorial and post-colonial pedagogical approaches not only contribute to new understandings and respect for Indigenous artists and women’s collectives of art of resistance, but to the empowerment of visitors from marginalized communities who witness a new vision of equality across our museum.

Keywords: feminist adult education, non-binary hierarchies, art and craft, Indigenous and resistant arts