March 21 - June 13, 2021
From the MAC:
“After being closed for almost a year due to the pandemic, the MAC is pleased to announce that it will be reopening it’s doors at a limited capacity. The MAC is opening with the exhibition Finding Our Way, made visible through a camera lens, which was initially planned for exhibition in March, 2020. A soft opening will be held on Saturday, January 30, from 12-5pm. Capacity will be limited, and visitors may book reserve a timeslot via EventBrite (bit.ly/themacjan2021)
The MAC is pleased to present Finding Our Way, made visible through a camera lens, an exhibition by artists Mary Margaret Hanson & Patsy Cravens. The exhibition will be on view January 30 through May 15, 2021, Thursday through Saturday from 12-5pm.
The thing was
to break free
Even as we remained dutiful
The thing was
with cameras in hand
We were already free.
— Mary Margaret Hansen
Through photographs, letters, personal prose, and historical objects, Finding Our Way documents the personal journeys of two women in the early 1980s during the cultural upheavals generated by the second wave of feminism.
Mary Margaret Hansen and Patsy Cravens used their cameras for self-expression, examining their place within their families and society. They captured compelling images of one another in domestic settings and against the rugged backdrop of Cravens’s family farm near Weimar, Texas. Paired with personal reflections and letters, the images and texts provide a first-hand account of women’s roles in recent history.
The exhibition marks 49 years since the Texas Legislature ratified the Equal Rights Amendment on March 30, 1972, “granting women and men equal legal rights.” However, the constitutional amendment faces an unsure future since falling short of required approval of three-fourths of state legislatures before its 1982 deadline specified by congress.
Finding Our Way was previously included in FotoFest & Houston Center for Photography’s Talent in Texas: New Photographic Work by Texas Artists curated by Catherine Anspon in 2015.
Also on view, Mi’kmaw’s foolish notions of suffrage by Tahila C. Mints is exhibited in The MAC’s new media gallery concurrently with Finding Our Way. In the short film, Jane Meador Elder, BACS, and ME’d discuss the Mi’kmaw creation story and how this relates to the venerated place of women in their culture. The empowering story provides different ways of understanding gender roles.”
Closing: June 13, 2021 | 12–5 pm
McKinney Avenue Contemporary (The MAC)
1503 South Ervay Street
Dallas, 75215 TX
214-953-1212
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