By: Kate Zaffarese, Community Journalist
HADDONFIELD — Celebrations across the country are commemorating America’s 250th anniversary, and the Haddonfield Memorial High School’s 50/50 club’s annual art show looks to highlight the often overlooked importance of women’s roles in the birth and development of the nation.
On Saturday, March 7, HMHS’s 50/50 club hosted their annual “Through a Woman’s Eyes” art show at the Haddon Fortnightly, a local social and civic club down the street from the high school that is dedicated to empowering women and giving back to their community.
This year’s theme for the show, coinciding with the United States’ 250th anniversary, was “Remember the Ladies.”
“We’re going to be hearing a lot about the men who founded this country and one thing that’s important to us is reminding people that women are always involved in history too, even though those are not the voices that are centered in textbooks. Women are always there,” said Margaret Gammie, a history teacher at HMHS and the 50/50 club’s advisor since 2014. “I got involved because as a teacher I want to make sure that our young women feel empowered and especially learn how to run community events like this, which is a really great way for them to make a difference in their communities.”
The theme of this year’s show, “Remember The Ladies”, comes from a series of letters Abigail Adams sent to her husband John Adams in 1776, urging him and the other members of Congress to recognize women as more than property and protect them from the power men held over them in the creation of the United States.
The letter reads: “Remember the ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors…if particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.”
However, these concerns were essentially dismissed by John Adams, and women wouldn’t gain the right to vote federally until the 19th amendment was passed in 1920 after a long, difficult struggle for equality.
The show’s proceeds went to Girls Learn International, a charity that supports education for girls around the world. Since its inception in 2017, the art show has raised over $18,000 for the group. This year’s event raised money for the Unatti Foundation, which provides educational opportunities for young girls in Nepal, who often face barriers to education such as poverty, child labor, and gender discrimination.
Events like this promote the work of women in the art world, a group that is frequently underrepresented. Although women make up 47% of visual artists in the United States, 87% of artists displayed in major U.S. art museums are male, according to a 2019 study by research journal PLOS ONE. The 50/50 club hosts this event with the purpose of lifting up female artists and letting them express themselves artistically in a public venue.
The artists included students and members of the community of all skill levels, giving everyone the chance to show off their work. Five prizes were given out during the event for best in show, best use of theme, best student art, best painting, best alternative mediums, best 3D art, and best portrait. The winners were awarded with cash prizes and gift baskets to celebrate their achievements.
Collingswood resident Sunny Thompson attended the art show to support her local community. An artist herself, she was impressed with the work of the artists displayed and wished she could do the same.
“When I see something different like this I think, wow, I wish I could do that, but my mind doesn’t work like this…the whole thing was very cool,” Thompson said.
For Gammie, the most important part of this event is giving the members of the 50/50 club the opportunity to get hands-on experience in organizing and hosting an event, which can better prepare them for their careers later in life.
“I think it’s great for them to feel like they’re capable of putting on an event like this so then it gives them the skills that they’re going to need later in life in their jobs or if they choose to do volunteer work,” Gammie said.
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