Exhibition 'To Be Seen: Representations of Women in the Arkell Museum Collection' in Arkell Museum and Canajoharie Library
To Be Seen examines how women have been represented in American art and what those representations reveal about observation, perception, and identity. Spanning multiple eras, media, and artistic perspectives, this exhibition considers how images of women have been shaped both consciously and unconsciously by the cultural frameworks, social expectations, and artistic conventions surrounding their creation.
Taken together, To Be Seen becomes a mirror reflecting how art records social history, how acts of observation can shape meaning, and how women’s visibility in art can signal admiration, constraint, agency, or reduction. The exhibition ultimately invites viewers to reflect on how they observe women, how cultural assumptions influence representation, and how the meaning of being seen continues to evolve.
Supported in part by the Robert and Karen Schlather Fund, and made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Edna Reindel
Cafe Girl, 1931
Made possible by the support of the New York State Council On the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
