Putting It All on the Table: Women and Nonbinary Artists Share Their Truths in Virtual Exhibit

As a bartender, Savanna Goodman sometimes feels like a therapist, too. “I talk to people for a living — all day, every day,” Goodman says. “They tell me about their problems and struggles. …It really opened a door for what people were struggling with, who have nothing in common with me.”

Goodman describes deconstructing a lot of learned beliefs after growing up in a toxic and sheltered environment and moving to the Virgin Islands in her twenties. “And I’ve been watching the Trump administration for ten years now and screaming from the rooftops, ‘Please, no!'” Goodman says.

So she came up with a way to express her own struggles through a photography venture called the When It’s You Project. “I wanted to make people understand what it feels like to put yourself in someone else’s shoes,” says Goodman, who is now based in Breckenridge. “I was hoping to do role reversals and visual metaphors to make people invert the situation.”

The result was several images and accompanying essays about the health-care system, ICE, sexuality, gender, religion and more. For example, “Your Body, Our Choice” depicts a man lying on a medical table in stirrups while nine impassive women in judge robes stand behind him. “You’ve got men, who have nothing in common with women’s bodies, making decisions about how they work,” Goodman says. “So I was like, ‘All right, if you were a man and there was a bunch of women making decisions about your intimate body, how would you feel? Scared!'”

Throughout her efforts, Goodman had been in touch with Athena Project, a Colorado nonprofit with the goal of amplifying women and underrepresented genders through the arts; she was asked to participate in the organization’s Body // Power, which opens November 13 and runs through December 13.

Body // Power is a virtual exhibition and Colorado Gives fundraising campaign for Athena Project. The show features the work of more than thirty women and nonbinary artists from across the U.S., commenting on the disappearing rights of women’s and marginalized people’s bodies and asserting their agency and power through art. “Your Body, Our Choice” will be one of the works on display.

Athena Project had connected with artists after the fall of Roe v. Wade to amplify their stories about why they were creating art in the reproductive justice space. “The success of that campaign led us to be able to do a similar campaign in the fall around #ArtHeals,” says Angela Astle, executive producer and founder of Athena Project. “Art can be both literally healing and a way for people to express themselves and heal through that expression.”

Body // Power will be accessible to anyone through a virtual gallery linked on Athena Project’s website. Viewers can move through the gallery, which has three rooms connected by a hallway, and view works hanging on the walls one by one. “If you click on the art piece itself, it’ll center that piece on your screen and you’ll be able to learn more about that particular piece and the artist,” Astle says. “And within the pop-up box, there will be links to the artist’s social media, website and where to purchase the art if it’s available for sale.”

In order to blend the live experience with the online one, there will be a community mural at the end of the exhibit, which will look like sticky notes on a whiteboard. People can leave their comments and thoughts there about the show, and also read what other viewers have to say.

The show is free to view, but those who are inspired can boost any donation through Colorado Gives Day; Athena Project lost a $10,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant earlier this year when the agency rescinded funding nationwide after being ordered to redirect its focus under the Trump administration.

“There’s so much funding that is being slashed from the arts alone,” Astle says. “I just heard a data point that the philanthropic industry would have to make a 300 percent increase in donations to replace what the federal government is cutting out of the arts.”

There are a few Body // Power virtual events to engage the community and the artists. The November 21 panel discussion, Art Bites & Art Heals, for example, is part of the national arts protest Fall of Freedom, a call to the arts community to unite through creative resistance. From November 21-22, museums, galleries, libraries and more will host events throughout the country to raise awareness about the arts and the urgency of the current situation.

“We registered our panel discussion as an opportunity to highlight art as activism and a way to get people to think differently about what’s happening,” Astle says.

Goodman focused on the When It’s You Project from January to June. “Every day I was working on it, writing, contacting people, trying to organize props and locations and driving around Denver trying to find properties that would fit and renting studios,” she says. When it was time to finally capture the image, Goodman says she’d take about fifty photos and then pick three good ones to superimpose on each other in Photoshop and get the exact image and message she wanted to portray.

There will be other multimedia art in Body // Power, as well as digital art, paintings and even poetry and songs.

Astle believes that art is a way to create empathy and make statements about things that may not grab attention as just words. She hopes Body // Power will inspire people to learn more about reproductive justice and its many facets. “Maybe there’s an image that’s really jarring and they want to be a little brave and be willing to be uncomfortable,” she suggests.

Goodman hopes the work will remind people to be kinder to each other, since you never really know what someone else is going through. “I travel internationally often,” she says. “And there’s such a disconnect in the U.S. with people that are just so engulfed with work and making money that they forget that other people are humans. I hope there’s some introspection.”

Body // Power Events

Opening Artist Reception
Thursday, November 13, 5-7 p.m.
Pop into a Zoom room to connect with the artists featured in the show as well as Athena Project team members. “In live art shows, opening night tends to have a lot of friends and family coming in to support the work, but there’s not a lot of time for the artists to connect with themselves,” Astle says. “We’ll have some conversation-starter questions for people to talk about their process and comment on each other’s work.”

Art Bites & Art Heals
Friday, November 21, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Join a discussion panel featuring a couple of the artists in Body // Power about how they use art as activism or for personal healing. This free event is part of the national Fall of Freedom effort; registration is required.

Artful Reflections
Saturday, December 6, 10:30 a.m.-noon
This free event is open to both artists and non-artists, and invites participants to reflect on the artwork through a moderated conversation. “Artists will get a chance to hear what other people are saying about their work, without the artists themselves being put on the spot,” Astle says. “A lot of times, artists will be asked to do a formal presentation about why they created what they did and their backstory. We try to flip that and let the artists be the audience and hear how the art has made an impact on other people.”

Body // Power is available to view online through December 13.