Debra Leigh Scott described the current exhibition of art by women at Hidden River Gallery and Salon, “Women of Vision 2012, we have six women, very diverse kinds of artists to celebrate Women’s History Month.  The show will be up until at least mid-April, we’ll be doing a First Friday for the show in April as well and probably one other event.  We use this space as a salon so we are having live music, we’re having readings and today we are having two singer/songwriters who are performing.  And two readers, because it’s Women’s History Month all of the artist are women, we are celebrating female creativity this month.”

I asked Debra Leigh Scott, publisher, writer, pro blogger and art maven, how she selected the group of artists for the Salon?  “I’ve known most of these artists for a while now.  Well, Lilliana Didovic is with the Da Vinci Art Alliance, I’ve known her work for quite some time.  Pam Peitzman and I have known each other since High School – should I admit that? – it might have been Junior High!  Maria Soloman and I have been very close friends, she and I both show at MCGOPA gallery, she’s a wonderful artist.  Barb Gesshel I met I met six months ago, she and I are the most recent acquaintances.  We have one student, Madeline Bates, I did not know Madeline until a month ago.  She’s with Tyler, her’s are the black and white photos, she’s a photo-journalist.”

“To celebrate Women’s History Month I wanted to do a show at the former Enclave Gallery, but it closed just before the show.”  I joked they just wanted to shut her up and Debra laughed but she said, “As you look at these images, you’ll see they’re mouth-less.”  What about the current political discussion in the media?  “It’s horrifying.  Governor Corbett wants to zero out the arts budget.  It’s hard to corporatize the value of the creative economy, we now have a culture that prioritizes and doesn’t see value in anything that can not be a commodity.  Here’s the thing, and you know this as well as I do, the Creative Economy brings in so much money with the theaters, the museums, musical venues, and the galleries.  If not for this. what would people come into the city for?  When you come to the city you may do a little shopping or go to the restaurants, the money comes back into the city.  People in Harrisburg are short sighted, and they’re short sighted in Washington now, too.”

“The artists have learned that we have to fend for ourselves and fend for each other.  One of the reasons I established the gallery was so there would be another space for artists to show.  You know this, you’ve been out there doing the same thing.  It’s a very challenging time and it’s discouraging time, but, it’s not just for artists, it’s for educators, it’s for anybody at this point who’s trying to earn a living wage.  We’ve got a country that’s falling apart.  Women in general are earning seventy- three cents on the dollar and most of the precarious jobs are women’s jobs.  I think we are losing a lot of the rights we’ve had so everything about being a woman is harder.  One of the things that I hope women artists do is raise a voice creatively, to talk about that, to not just worry about making art but making art that really has an impact on the public discourse.  Because, I think, any avenue that we’ve got is really important to take.”

“Women of Vision, Philadelphia 2012, ” a show in celebration of Women’s History Month at Hidden River Arts Gallery and Salon through April 20, 2012, read interviews with artists Laura Acton, Lilliana Didovic, Barb Gesshel, Pamela Peitzman at DoNArTNeWs Philadelphia Art News Blog.  The show includes work by visual artists Maddie Bates and Maria Lourdes Solomon. Singer/songwriters Rosa Diaz and Zoie Salowitz and novelist Nikki Beard.

Hidden River Arts produces and runs a variety of open mic/reading events where artists of many disciplines come together to perform, participate, show their work and network with others. There are live music activities, poetry readings, literary readings, performance art, workshop events, and visual arts activities. Please see www.hiddenriverarts.com

Read more about Gesshel on SideArts.com

Written and photographed by DoN Brewer

Other Likely Stories by Debra Leigh Scott

Her Philadelphia Tales, The Art of Lilliana S. Didovic by DoN Brewer

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