Off the Beaten Path: Violence, Women, and Art

June 6 – September 9, 2011

Off the Beaten Path presents the work of 28 contemporary artists from 24 countries, including Yoko Ono (Japan), Louise Bourgeois (France), Wangechi Mutu (Kenya), Mona Hatoum (Palestine), and Hank Willis Thomas (USA), whose work addresses the issues of violence against women and girls around the world and their basic human rights to a safe and secure life. The project combines cutting-edge art with important social messaging and storytelling to help create awareness, inspiration, and address systems for positive social change and action. Randy Jayne Rosenberg, executive director of the nonprofit group Art Works for Change, is the exhibit’s curator.

The goal of Off the Beaten Path is to help create a new conversation on the full spectrum of issues that surround this important topic. Within the context of this project, Art Works for Change explores various definitions of violence against women and girls as they relate to themes of Violence and the Individual; Violence and the Family; Violence and the Community; Violence and Culture; and Violence and Politics. The hope is that audiences leave the exhibition with a better understanding of the roots of abuse, a feeling of empathy, and an awareness of choice in their actions and beliefs.