Today is SWAN Day (Support Women Artists Now) – today, March 28, 2009 is the second year of this “new international holiday that celebrates women artists.  It is an annual event taking place on the last Saturday of Women’s History Month (March).” The executive director, Martha Richards says  “Together we will build a world where women artists get the respect they deserve!” There is a website SWAN Day (http://swanday.org) which lists 160 SWAN Day 2009 events in 11 countries!  WOW this is quite something to see all these people, women, working together together to make this world a better place for all us women artists!

Buying something from your favorite woman artists is a great place to start!  I am very active and involved in networking and supporting other artists online and at least 90% of the people in the artist teams and groups I am active with are women.  We are all working and searching for good ways to get our great work out there to YOU in a way that is affordable to you and gives us decent payment for what we have created.

SWAN Day (Support Women Artists Now)

At this website, there are some very cool resources.  Many of them are focused on raising money and publicity for SWAN Day … but they can be useful for us as women artists as we promote ourselves, our artwork and our art businesses.  We are starting to write press releases for the next AWE Project (Artists Window Exhibit) (Greenfield, Franklin County, MA, US) and I think we will be using these resources to improve what we send out to promote this event that features mostly women artists.

I am going to share some of the other resources that were shared with me.  I am quoting here from an email sent to me by Julie Forbes, Associate Director, SWAN Day.  Here is a very extended excerpt from her email.

Explore www.womenarts.org. Here’s some of what you’ll find:

**Grants/Resources Information**

Search our well-researched, annotated lists of arts funders, categorized by art form, at www.WomenArts.org/fund/fundlists.html. For answers to many of your funding questions, see our Funding FAQs page at www.womenarts.org/fund/FAQ.htm.

**Funding and Resource Newsletters for Film/Video and Theatre Artists**

These free, bi-monthly newsletters are chock full of current calls for entries from competitions and festivals and requests for proposals from funding organizations. Read recent issues or sign up for free subscriptions at www.WomenArts.org/fund/EmailNewsletterSign-Up.htm.

**The WomenArts Network**

A one-of-a-kind showcase of the diversity and creativity of women artists in all the artistic disciplines, the WomenArts Network is a webspace where woman artists or women-run arts organizations may post free profiles about themselves and their work. With over 1000 profiles of artists living in every state in the U.S. and 23 countries around the world, the WomenArts Network is helping women artists connect to each other and acting as a clearinghouse for those looking to hire a woman artist. Go to www.WomenArts.org and click on WomenArts Network to search the profiles or to get started creating one of your own.  End of the quote – and there was more … check out these resources and you will find them!

I hope you have enjoyed finding out about this, as I have.  And remember, today is SWAN Day (Support Women Artists Now), but EVERY day is a great day to Support Women Artists!!  I hope you read this today and also keep this for yourself and woman artists in your life! Thank you for stopping by!

~ Diane Clancy

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