IOWA CITY , IOWA
IOWA
ORAL HISTORIES, 1998-1999
1.25 linear feet and
audiovisual
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ACQUISITION: |
The tapes and
transcripts (donor no. 829) were donated by Jane Robinette in 2001. |
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ACCESS: |
The tapes and transcripts are open for research. |
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COPYRIGHT: |
Copyright retained by Jane Robinette will be transferred to the |
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AUDIOVISUAL: |
One compact disk (CD1); 144 audiocassettes (AC669 – AC812 ). |
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PROCESSED BY: |
Emily Broeckling, 2003 [IowaWomenArtists.doc] |
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History
Jane Robinette launched the Iowa Women
Artists Oral History Project in the first half of 1998. Names for the original mailing were gathered
from several sources, including the Iowa Arts Council artists’ directory,
recommendations from artist friends and relatives, lists from galleries, and
art exhibits. This letter, sent to over
100 women, stated general criteria for the interviewees, namely women visual
artists who were age 30 or older, who had lived in Iowa for at least the past
five years (or who previously lived in Iowa for several years and recently
returned), and who considered art their major activity or vocation (including
the teaching of art).
As the interviewing progressed, many
of the artists also suggested more names, which resulted in further
mailings. While the initial hope was to
interview nearly all women visual artists in Iowa, it quickly became clear that
this would be impossible—even when limiting the types of artwork included. In the end, seventy-nine women were
interviewed. Two artists later withdrew
from the project after receiving copies of their transcripts.
Those interviewed represent a fair cross-section of
artwork, location, and age, but regrettably racial and ethnic diversity is
limited. Some of this is inherent in the
makeup of Iowa’s population; some is due to interviewee self-selection (not
responding to or declining the invitation to participate); some is due to the
project’s limited resources, time, and ability to locate artists.
Jane
Robinette
Jane Robinette was born and raised in Des Moines, living most of her life in Iowa. She grew up surrounded by art and art-making, as her mother and aunt were visual artists. She began writing poetry and prose and enjoying visual creative activities as a young child.
After earning a B.A. in social work
from the University of Northern Iowa, Robinette was coordinator of two
community-based organizations in Iowa, and was an editorial assistant and copy
editor at a small press in Michigan. She
received her J.D. from the University of Iowa College of Law, and in 1990, she
began her employment as a law clerk, and later staff attorney, for the federal
district court in Des Moines. She left
her law job in April 1998 to begin the Iowa Women Artists Oral History Project
and to do more creative work on her own.
In the 1990s, Robinette began
creating “poem-paintings”—works on paper combining watercolor or acrylic paint
and her poetry. In her travels, she saw
first-hand the gender gap still present in the collections of many museums—this
reinforced her belief in the need for projects like the Iowa Women Artists Oral
History Project. She has a long-time
interest in oral history, believing that the telling and recording of life
stories can be a meaningful and illuminating experience for both the narrator
and the interviewer.
Scope and
Content Note
The Iowa Women Artists Oral
Histories date from mid-1998 to
September 1999, and measure 1.25
linear feet. The »interviews cover childhood, education, development
as an artist, artwork, creative process, and influences. They vary in length, but the average
interview was one and one-half hours.
The interviews usually took place in the artist’s home or studio. The interviewer, Jane Robinette, traveled
over 5,800 miles to thirty-three towns and cities, collecting seventy-nine
interviews on 148 tapes, resulting in 1,830 transcript pages. The transcripts are arranged alphabetically, preceded by individual
biographical abstracts and Jane Robinette’s notes about the interview.
An additional impetus of the Iowa Women Artists Oral
History Project was the construction of a website, www.lucidplanet.com/IWA, which
features sound bytes from the interviews, text clippings from the transcripts,
updates of recent exhibits, short biographical sketches of each artist, and a
small sampling of each artist’s work.
Related Collections
The
Iowa Women’s Archives holds the papers of:
Berry,
Jean
Coy,
Gretchen
Myers,
Virginia
Steinbach,
Robbie