The torchbearers : women and their amateur arts associations in America, 1890-1930 / Karen J. Blair. [electronic resource]

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Blair, Karen J.

Series:

Philanthropic studies

Philanthropic studies The torchbearers

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Feminism and the arts--United States--History--19th century.

Feminism and the arts.

Feminism and the arts--United States--History--20th century.

Women--United States--Societies and clubs.

Women.

Feminism and the arts--History--19th century--United States.

Feminism and the arts--History--20th century--United States.

Women--Societies and clubs--United States.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 259 p. ) ill. ;

Other Title:

Torch bearers.

Place of Publication:

Bloomington : Indiana University Press, c1994.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The arts clubs for women that flourished during the Progressive Era played a major role in the emergence of middle-brow culture in America. Although nineteenth-century women were expected to acquire knowledge of the arts sufficient for the amusement and edification of their families, they were nonetheless excluded from professional circles. For women seeking a more active role in cultural life, the voluntary arts associations were a vehicle by which they could expand into the public sphere their domestic support of the arts. The Torchbearers shows that these clubs were more than havens for artistic dilettantes. They were effective advocacy groups for promoting universal access to the fine arts, and they left a vital legacy of cultural programs and institutions.

Clubwomen - typically white, urban, Protestant, and middle class - considered themselves "torchbearers" who could lead others to embrace the highest ideals. They combatted popular or vulgar culture while promoting women and regional artists ignored by the professional elite and encouraging creative expression for everyone. In the process, they helped build an audience for "high" culture, promoted municipal art galleries, started numerous little theaters, and made a place for the arts in the school curriculum. Even in the context of the growing professionalism in the arts and the benevolence of large, well-funded male philanthropic institutions, the women's amateur arts clubs were influential in the evolving cultural life of the nation.

Contents:

Arts in nineteenth-century American women's lives

Arts and activism: an overview of women's clubs, 1890-1930

"Hear America first": women's amateur musical societies

Women's societies for the visual arts: the struggle to be seen

Pageantry and the women's rights movement, 1905-1925

Little theater movement

Clubhouse as arts center.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. [239]-248) and index.

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

ISBN:

0-585-22088-3