“It has connected me with a large community of women artists and has taught me that, without question, THERE IS NO ONE WAY TO MAKE ART. One must do it HER way and in so doing it becomes valid and speaks for you to others.” - Ellouise Schoettler
Five years after the inaugural festival in Copenhagen, a second festival, the Focus International Festival, was held in Kenya's capital city Nairobi. Attended by an estimated 14,000 visitors, Focus International offered a second opportunity for women artists from all over the world to network and share their work. The center of the festival, the "American Album" project, consisted of art albums that contained artist statements and an original piece of work. Compiled via questionnaires sent to women’s art organizations for distribution to their membership, participants were asked for statements about their lives as women and artists. Described as a "grassroots art project" that would "function as tangible outreach from the women in the United States to women at the Nairobi conference," the albums were placed in-situ at the festival, allowing for attending women to "make their mark."
In addition to the albums, artists were invited, as for the Copenhagen festival, to submit postcards of their work. Together, the albums and postcard exhibition provided ample opportunity for participation and dialogue.
NGO Activity Request form, completed by Project Director Nancy Cusick
This activity request form details the festival, including its vision ("...a multimedia project for women in the arts, designed to foster a climate for interchange and understanding through art among women of all nations") and some of the participants, including Faith Ringgold, Alida Walsh, Ellouise Schoettler, Muriel Magenta and Cynthia Navaretta.
Program list for the UN conference, mentioning art programs
Comprehensive program list
This document details a number of programs planned for Focus International, the goals of which were to "achieve a broad-based rapport with Third World Women" through creating "programs of non-traditional art forms," including pottery, mural painting and mask making.
Lecture flier for event at WWAC Gallery in NW Washington
The Project Director of Focus International, Nancy Cusick, offered this lecture at the Washington Women's Art Center, a non-profit created to provide professional support and opportunities for women in the arts.
List of artists included in "An American Album"
Visitors attend the postcard exhibition
As mentioned in her artist statement, Ann Stein was, like Nancy Cusick and many other festival participants, a member of the Washington Women's Art Center. The work shown here, "Nude in a Golden Light," explores her personal ancestry as well as light and air.
Agnes Hahn Brodie was born in Hungary and educated in Paris, Cleveland and Washington, D.C., before working at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Virginia. Her work, in installation, paint, photography and sculpture, was known for its three dimensional quality.
Originally from Greece, Anastasia Seremetis worked in handmade paper and gauze, materials that she often dyed with coffee, tea and ink.