Allen After Hours / Hidden Histories in the Museum: Overcoming Challenges Researching Woman Artists

Thursday, April 10, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.

In the last decade, the Allen has positioned itself as a leader in the representation of work by historical women artists. This talk by art historian Theresa Kutasz Christensen will examine issues and challenges related to the collection, location, and display of pre-modern women’s work in museums using examples from the Allen’s collection. Materially diverse works by artists such as Anne Allen, Marie- Elisabeth Lemoine, María Josefa Sánchez, and Luisa Rafaela de Valdés Morales, as well as the work of anonymous artists and makers, will be explored through the themes of searchability, ephemerality, and biography. These examples will be presented with the aim of identifying avenues for overcoming barriers that have long limited the location and display of women’s work within the modern museum.

Image: Marie-Elisabeth Lemoine (French, 1761–1811), Self-Portrait with Straw Hat and Palette, ca. 1795. Oil on canvas. R. T. Miller Jr. Fund, 2022.23.

Access Statement:

This event will be held in a wheelchair- and rolling walker-accessible building. The lecture space is wheelchair accessible, with moveable seating, and near wheelchair-accessible restrooms. Restrooms are gender-specific; visitors are invited to use the restroom of their preference. Listening devices will be available for use during the presentation, but ASL interpretation is currently not scheduled for this event. Most talks will be recorded and available with closed captions on the museum’s Vimeo page after the event. Please email access questions to Jill Greenwood, jgreenwo@oberlin.edu.