Women + Creativity

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I am getting really weary of beating this drum. Tokion sent an email blast last night announcing their speaker line-up for the 4th Edition of their Creativity Now Conference. Below is their announcement with a couple of small edits from me:

This unique symposium will bring together top ~~figures~~ men in art, design, fashion, photography, film, new media, publishing and marketing. In the same room for the first time, the~~people~~ men shaping today’s popular culture will spend two days exchanging their ideas, methods and inspirations before an audience of 2,000.

Who knew it was so damn hard to find creative women to speak on panels? It must be a huge challenge because they have nineteen speakers and three moderators and there’s not a woman among them. No female screenwriters or magazine designers or street artists or brand strategists. Nope, they are impossible to find.

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You’re currently reading “Women + Creativity,” an entry on Personism

Published:: 10.03.06 / 8am

Category:: Art, Branding + Identity, Conferences, Ideas, Women

Older:: Upcoming: Photographs from the New World
Newer:: The Man Show Continues

ken Says:
October 4th, 2006 at 10:09 am

hi jen,

we’ve been getting this comment a lot…

for the record, women invited who turned us down/were unavailable include:
yoko ono
cindy sherman
sofia coppola
sam taylor wood
nikki s lee
cecilia dean
nicole phelps
hope atherton
miranda july
dana schutz
valerie faris
amy larocca
elizabeth peyton
vivienne westwood
luella bartley
stella mccartney
lance still
sally mann
cecily brown
swoon

and plenty more i can’t think of off the top of my head…

as for “who knew it was so damn hard?” well, as that list shows, it ISN’T hard coming up with talented women working in art, design, fashion, photography, film, new media, publishing and marketing.

but the speakers list you see reflects the reality of who was willing/available to confirm for the conference. however, it’s flattering to think that we give the impression that we have so much control over the creative community’s colllective schedule that we get to pick and choose our speaker list without outside considerations. we’ll take that as a compliment!

Jen Bekman Says:
October 6th, 2006 at 9:26 am

I appreciate Ken taking the time to respond, but I have to say that the justification doesn’t hold water. It’s not enough to try - think of an inversion, impossible as it may be. What if you asked a bunch of people and it turned out that the roster were comprised exclusively as women? Aside from the fact that it would’ve never happened that way, it’s unlikely that such a roster would be presented to the public.

It’s not acceptable. Perhaps you need to ask twice as many women as you intitally asked. Perhaps when an invited speaker replies “no” you need to ask them to refer you to other women. Or perhaps you could have presented the issue to the panelists who accepted the invitation - I’m sure that they know some women who would be a fine addition to your schedule. It’s not too late.

Personism»Blog Archive » The Man Show Continues Says:
October 6th, 2006 at 7:26 pm

[…] Wasn’t it just the other day that I noted Tokion’s manly line-up for their Creativity Now conference? And wasn’t it just today that Design Observer linked it up? […]

Personism»Blog Archive » A List, To Start Says:
October 7th, 2006 at 10:37 pm

[…] Brooklyn Vegan made a good point, which is that I have as yet not offered any solutions, just pointed out an issue. So, I just sat for a couple of minutes and put together a list of women who’d be potentially great speakers at the Creativity Now conference. I will track back and add links and/or affiliations later. In the near term, I wanted to get some suggestions out there. […]

Personism » Blog Archive » Paddy Reviews the Brice Marden Exhibition Says:
November 29th, 2006 at 3:23 pm

[…] * I have a lot to say about this issue, with print media criticism and the moribundity thereof, and I’m going to say it at some point soon even though it’s probably ill-advised. But you know, I am a woman with opinions and I’ve got some ideas about solutions because I’m the sort to speak up about issues and do something about it too. […]

jen Says:
December 13th, 2006 at 2:39 pm

So, Jen, you’re asking that twice as many women should be invited; if a woman turns down the invitation, more work should be done in asking for a recomendation for only women… now there’s some equality for you… oh wait, no it’s not…

Jen Bekman Says:
December 13th, 2006 at 3:00 pm

At the point that I wrote about this, the conference roster was 100% male.

I doubt that as many women as men were asked to begin with, and I also doubt that twice as many women would need to be asked in order to come up with at least a few women, and yea, I think that if that’s what needed to be done, it should’ve been done.

What do you propose as a solution?

Also, for future reference, the Art Fag City » Tokion Privileges Male Creativity At This Year’s Conference Says:
February 5th, 2007 at 9:27 am

[…] Undoubtedly the most important activist effort in the art blogosphere right now began last Tuesday, when gallerist Jen Bekman observed that Tokion’s latest conference Creativity Now, included 23 male panelists and moderators and 0 female participants. The Design Observer, linked to the story on Friday, and Tokion, ignoring the negative press generating on the web, sent out a mass email later that day announcing that they have invited five more men to the conference. […]

Art Fag City » Tokion Privileges Male Creativity At This Year’s Conference Says:
March 11th, 2007 at 2:40 pm

[…] most important activist effort in the art blogosphere right now began last Tuesday, when gallerist Jen Bekman observed that Tokion’s latest conference Creativity Now, included 23 male panelists and moderators and […]

Skaggs Blog » Blog Archive » Where My Ladies At? Says:
March 14th, 2007 at 10:42 am

[…] when two consecutive panels went up and it was all men. Last years Tokion conference had similar issues and there was a big hoo-haa about it […]

Personism » Blog Archive » All the King’s Men Says:
April 26th, 2007 at 3:58 pm

[…] hate to pick on Tokion again (and again and again and again) but man (pun intended) they really can’t take a […]