A whole new (art) world at the Women's Mobile Museum

If you’ve seen Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette, you’re familiar with her excoriation of the art world’s promotion of the “genius” of toxic men. For every Picasso, there is a score of female or nonbinary artists who have been kept in the shadows, either directly because men have taken them down or because their potential has been considered but discarded in favor of their male counterparts. But change is coming, thanks in large part to initiatives like the Women’s Mobile Museum from Philadelphia Photo Arts Center (PPAC) and Zanele Muholi.

PPAC teamed up with Muholi, a South African artist-activist, to create a yearlong residency for ten Philadelphia artists, all of diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, ages, and experiences. At the end of the residency the artists’ work will be featured in a roving gallery that will travel to different locations throughout Philadelphia for six months. Muholi is a photographer whose self-proclaimed mission is “to rewrite a black queer and trans visual history of South Africa for the world to know of our resistance and existence at the height of hate crimes in South Africa and beyond.” She is utilizing her first major US-based project to empower local women and nonbinary folx by imparting her own artistic skillset and giving these artists a platform.

A new rubric

This is the first residency and exhibition for many of the artists. Shana Roberts, a multidisciplinary artist whose work in the gallery explores black existence and experience, is one of the 10 artists being highlighted in a major way for the first time. But it wasn’t just the promise of a final presentation that drew Roberts to the residency: she was excited by Muholi’s mentorship, and from there the experience blossomed.

She anticipated that her photography skills would grow under Muholi’s teaching, but what Roberts wasn’t prepared for was the well-rounded nature of the residency. Along with shepherding artistic growth, Muholi worked with the residents to teach them how to self-promote and to take hold of their own careers, even within an industry that is still learning how to diversify and expand its arsenal of featured artists.

Roberts also found PPAC’s selection process heartening. In her experience, the usual rubric for most fellowships is that artists are chosen based on education levels, previous exhibitions, or awards they have already achieved — which leaves little room for artists who are fighting to be seen. But PPAC engaged in a more comprehensive analysis of the individual artist, letting the personalities and goals of the chosen be as important (if not more so) than merits in the form of accolades. And if you’re trying to make way for new voices, creating new systems for evaluating who gets opportunities is key.

Being beautiful

Speaking at a May 24 kickoff event at PPAC, Afaq Mahmoud, another Mobile Museum resident, noted that artists like her (a young black woman) have often felt a sense of “erasure.” People “are often talking around and over me,” she said.

Her contribution to the exhibition will be a series of self-portraits, a brave undertaking in itself because “I am not what is called beautiful in this country,” but “I decided that I am.” Mahmoud wants to change the history that has often failed to offer dignified representations of people like her in gallery settings or has fetishized them in public spaces.

The Women’s Mobile Museum will make its way to four different locations from late September through March, including the Juniata Boys and Girls Club and Point Breeze’s Dixon House. The goal? To bring in new audiences and bring art to communities who often have little access to it.

There is a lot more work to be done in order to restructure and open up the art world of Hannah Gadsby’s comedy sets, but the PPAC and Zanele Muholi’s endeavors are a sizeable step in the right direction.

The Philadelphia Photo Arts Center’s Women’s Mobile Museum will debut on September 22 and run through October 13 at Juniata Park Boys and Girls Club (1001 E. Cayuga Street, Philadelphia). From late October 2018 through March 2019, it will travel to Point Breeze, PAFA, and PPAC. For details, visit online.