A Hera Members Exhibition Featuring 33 current, former, and founding members.
Maggy Allen, Sally Barker, Amanda Bingham, Shweta Bist, Jappie Black, Uli Brahmst, Alexandra Broches, Desirae Brown, Ryan Clinton, Martha Cooper, Sonja Czekalski, Madge Evers, Kathie Florsheim, Michelle Henning, Nancy Himmel, John Kotula, Linnea Leeming, Viera Levitt, Barbara Pagh, Frances Powers, Tory Reiff, Roberta Richman, Lilla Samson, Chad Self, Jason Smith, Marne Snyder, Marisa Squire, Erin Starr, Naomi Sultanik, Sarah Swift, Mara Trachtenberg, Wendy Wahl, & Cindy Wilson
We are proud to present Hera Gallery: Past and Present, a Hera members exhibition featuring current, former, and founding members. The idea for Hera Gallery emerged in the small village of Wakefield, Rhode Island when a women’s consciousness raising group was inspired by New York's A.I.R. 's prototype. While only 3 hours away from New York City, these women artists in a small town in Rhode Island quickly learned it was a century away. The concept started as a “wonderful fantasy” until someone said “Do It.” Though many thought a contemporary art gallery, especially one dedicated to exhibiting femme artists, in rural Rhode Island was a joke, founding and current member Roberta Richman said “the whole premise of it was that we had been a group of artists working in isolation. The feeling was that there was a need to establish ourselves in the community here, and if we didn’t do it, it just wouldn’t be done.”
In 1974, the women of Wakefield did not then know that they would be carrying on an art revolution. As Hera Gallery celebrates fifty years in 2024, we understand the significance of being among the first women-run galleries to open in the US, and one of the few that remain. Hera Gallery thrives as a creative cooperative with over thirty artist members from across the country, and eleven on the ground exhibitions per year. Since its inception in 1974, Hera has been resolutely dedicated to gender equity and feminist discourse to challenge perceptions and inspire social change.
Remembering Alexandra
Alexandra Broches was a founding member of Hera Gallery and an artist member for 50 years. She served on the Board of Director’s for all this time and was President for many years. Alexandra exhibited her work regularly at the Gallery and in recent years showed the moving series based on her family history, “Letters and Postcards from a Box”. You can see more of her work on her website www.alexandrabroches.com. She also curated exhibitions over the years including “Memory, Identity, Place: Sites of Memory and Honor”; “Hera Gallery: The First 30 Years”; and Hera’s 40 th Anniversary exhibition. In 1995 she represented Hera Gallery on a panel sponsored by the Women’s Caucus for Art at the NGO Forum on Women of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China. While there she arranged for an exchange exhibition, “Visions from North America” at the University of Wollongong Gallery. She was Hera’s dedicated archivist and was project director of The History of Hera: A Women’s Art Cooperative, 1974-1989. She was a meticulous saver and when Hera had to move from our Main Street location she was instrumental in getting our archives accepted in Special Collections at The University of Rhode Island Library. It is difficult to picture Hera without Alexandra. It is because of her hard work, passion, and dedication, that we have arrived at our 50 th Anniversary. We looked forward to celebrating this landmark with her by our side.