Miami University history professor Kimberly Hamlin gave a lecture Thursday evening at the Allen County Museum.
Craig Kelly | The Lima News
LIMA — As part of its “Art of Domesticity” exhibit, the Allen County Museum hosted a lecture Thursday on the topic of women’s artistic movements and their connection with women’s suffrage in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Speaking at the event was Kimberly Hamlin, a history professor and chair of global and intercultural studies at Miami University. Her lecture linked the evolving roles of women in the wake of the Civil War and new roles for women in the workplace with the growth of women’s clubs and groups like the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. The social change sought through such organizations served to inspire women to call for a greater voice in society, both in artistic expression and political activism.
A unique feature of women’s artistic expression, Hamlin said, was in how it could come even through what are considered “domestic” activities, such as quilting and sewing.
“I also wanted to put in a little bit about how, more recently, since the 1960s women artists, and in particular feminist artists, have been reclaiming some of the traditional women’s arts and saying always all along, ‘These have been art forms,’ and these art forms are also political,” she said.
The “Art of Domesticity” exhibit will continue at the museum through Nov. 10. For more information, go to bit.ly/3XpXiXa.
