“We must move into the future, creating it as we go. We have been placed on the edge of history too long now. We have always been here.”
~ Sue Hoya Sellars
I grew up going to the museum. Sue, my Co-Mother and Teacher made sure of it. No one in my family had more than a high school education, but we had something that mattered more to them. Insight into the arts. We studied art, we read poetry aloud, we played music, we actually talked.
Here we are in 2014 – we took her to Paris with our community… Shortly after we returned, she walked on to the cosmos.
As time went on, the inequity of women and women of color in the arts became so very obvious and devastating. That didn’t keep us from studying art. We were way into all the male artists, yet Sue always pointed out the women in the art and how the men were painting the women. And the women behind the men, and then really sought out the women artists. Thinking of it now my eyes get misty. I am so grateful. And oh my Goddess how I miss going to the museum with her, and our museum membership, which she took VERY SERIOUSLY. WE HAD TO SUPPORT THE ARTS.
As I grew up I continued to be stunned, no shocked, no pissed right the &#$*! off that women represented half of the artists in the world and yet represented less than 2% of art in museums and galleries. I had to do something, but what could I do?
It was a momentous occasion when I went to see the exhibit for Sue’s teacher, Lenore Thomas Straus in 2015 in the teeny tiny museum in Greenbelt, Maryland where she had worked much of her life alongside the Roosevelts. We brought art from Lenore, as well as her actual carving tools, a piece of my art, and a piece of Sue’s art. It was a very big deal in a very small space. One of the things the Curator said was “We want to show how Intentional Creativity is the enduring legacy of Lenore – and how rare it is for an artist to pass on her tools, quite literally, and also figuratively in terms of the approach to making art.” Jonathan and I were truly struck by this idea and it furthered our passion to continue towards our unreasonable dream of the Museum we held in our hearts. In this video from Lenore’s exhibit opening, I read some poetry from her book.
I inherited Sue’s entire collection of her own art, and many of our family have tons of her work and then there are her collectors. For years after she walked on in 2014 I tried to get her work into fine galleries, auction houses, talked to art dealers and nothing, no invitation, no action – nothing. Just nothing. I did feel a little desperate about what I was to DO with this incredible legacy of art and information. Was it mine to curate? Did I want to? What was involved?
Here I am preparing her exhibit that currently resides at Musea in Sonoma. Ready for visitors when we can open our doors again.
Making our virtual museum is an unreasonable dream. This is a lot of work. A lot of resources. A lot of dreaming. I have no idea how our Intentional Creativity Foundation is going to create this for the next seven generations. I don’t. And because of our global community, and specifically those who are active Museum Members, you have let me know this matters to you.
Thank you. From my heart to yours, on behalf of Sue, Carmen, and our Art Ancestors, thank you.
We made it to the big time. We are the big time. We are the interruptors. We are the museum now.
with a grateful heart,
Sue and me at the Louvre in Paris, 2014
