Concord artist named national president of Women’s Caucus for Art
The Women’s Caucus for Art, a 48-year-old national arts organization with 21 chapters across the U.S., has a new president, and she lives right here in the Granite State. Laura Morrison of Concord is an artist, the gallery director at Twiggs Gallery in Boscawen and a 20-plus-year member of the Women’s Caucus for Art New Hampshire Chapter. She talked about the position, leadership during the time of Covid and her plans moving forward.
What do you do as an artist?
I’m a fiber artist. I do fiber sculpture using free-form crochet, knitting, embroidery, beading, felting, whatever fiber I want to use to create the effect I want to make. I’ve been doing that for about 15 years or so. Before that, I did more assemblage and collage. Sometimes I’ll do some printmaking as well. But my major focus is on fiber.
Why did you decide to get involved with the Women’s Caucus for Art?
I joined WCA when I first moved to New Hampshire over 20 years ago, so I’ve been involved with the organization for a long time. I was looking to focus on my fine art more intently, and I wanted to find a group of people to connect with. I found the WCA New Hampshire Chapter and got very involved with that pretty quickly. I worked on a lot of exhibitions. I served on the board for several years and eventually became president. Then, about four or five years ago, I became involved with the national board. I joined as the VP for Chapter Relations, which connected me with all the chapters across the country. I would help them with whatever they needed, [like] chapter activities and things like that, and I tried to connect them with each other. Then, this year, I became [national] president.
How has WCA helped you as an artist?
It’s been a great way to help me nurture my life as an artist. I don’t think I would have had the courage to actually pursue my fine art if I hadn’t found this organization. The New Hampshire chapter is actually one of the more vibrant WCA chapters in the country — we have close to 100 members — so I got to meet a lot of artists. It’s a very supportive, nurturing organization. We really help each other out and mentor each other and encourage each other to do our work. When I first started out, I didn’t know much about the art world, but [through WCA] I learned a lot, like how to pull together exhibitions, how to write press releases, all sorts of different things.
What does your new position entail right now?
Well, we’re in a very difficult time right now. Normally, we have conferences every year, get together for summer meetings, things like that, but in this time of Covid we’re not able to do that. But, having worked as the VP for Chapter Relations for four years, I saw an opportunity: Everyone has learned how to [use] Zoom. No one had really used Zoom or connected with each other that way before, but once we had lockdown, after a couple of weeks everyone had learned how to do it. I thought it would be a great opportunity to nurture communication between members and chapters across the nation so that they could really start connecting more intimately and getting to know each other better, which would create a more cohesive organization instead of being fractured into chapters. … So that’s what I’m doing right now. I’ve only been doing it for a few months, but it’s really beginning to ramp up and get more people connected. It’s been exciting.
What would you like to accomplish during your tenure?
We normally have about 1,200 members; I’d love to grow the organization even larger, and I’d like to increase networking and interaction and collaboration on projects between our members and chapters. When the different chapters around the nation are putting on exhibits, I’d like to see them open [the exhibits] to all WCA members, not just the members or people in their region, so that there are more exhibition opportunities for all of our members. … We have a lot of members who are not near a chapter, so I’d like for us to take advantage of the technology we have and do virtual meetings and gatherings to pull in people from other states who might feel alone or not connected or not nurtured. … I want to take educational videos of the interesting talks and different presentations that the chapters have done and get those videos up on our website so all of our members can have access to what the other chapters have done as well. … I also really want people to have better communication throughout [the art world] at large and learn how to connect with the other arts organizations within their regions and collaborate with them as well.
Why should artists join WCA?
First, I want to say that WCA is very inclusive instead of exclusive. You do not have to be juried into the organization, so anyone can join. We have all sorts of different artists, from painters to photographers, sculptors to print makers to fiber artists and quilters. … Being an artist is hard to do by yourself. You really need to connect with other artists in order to grow your practice, feel supported, gain confidence, learn new things and get excited about creating art. Sharing your art with other people is also, I think, super important, whether it’s [through] an exhibition or even just an art share meeting. … [In WCA] we’re very supportive of each other and really lift each other up in every aspect of our careers. We don’t compete with each other. We help each other. That’s why I feel like this organization is very special.
Featured Photos: Laura Morrison. Courtesy photo.
