Softpower in Gulfport, by Donna Oglesby [Guest Blogpost]

How do you express the tension between vulnerability and unyielding structures? Artists in the Florida Chapter of the Women’s Caucus For Art (WCA) explore the powerful concept that fragility holds a unique strength in an exhibition currently showing at the Catherine Hickman Theater in Gulfport, Florida. They call their exhibition: Soft Power.
 
Soft Power is out of fashion in the loud, hard and violent exercise of force and intimidation on the streets and the seas of our world these days. But, if you pay attention, you might understand that perhaps we are experiencing the chaos at the end of something, the last gasp of a fading order. The field of consciousness that connects us all has something to say about what may be born, if we choose to midwife.
 
Artists have a job to do to aid in the rebirth of freedom, lovingness and generosity in this time of illiberality. Some us know that as Pablo Neruda wrote: ‘You can cut down the flowers, but you can’t stop the spring.’ Our task, as artists, is to illustrate quiet determination—the capacity to stand unshaken even when the world feels in flux. We are doing so locally and nationally.
 
The national WCA, whose mission is to create community through art, education, and social activism has risen to defend artistic freedom and resist authoritarianism through creative action. We participate in the national Fall Of Freedom initiative of artists and culture makers who know in their bones that: “Art matters and courage is contagious."
 
Women’s Caucus for Art (https://nationalwca.org/)
 
Fall of Freedom (https://www.falloffreedom.com/)
 
Donna Oglesby Photography (https://www.donnaoglesby.photography/)


 

Donna Marie Oglesby