The Glen Arbor Arts Center’s current VESSELS exhibit offers an out-of-the-box look at bowls, baskets, urns, pods, and other objects that store and carry things. This juried exhibition is on display until Oct. 27 and features 28 exhibitors from Michigan, California, Illinois, and Rhode Island. Of particular note, the exhibit includes the Creation of the World 6/9, a needlework tapestry from Judy Chicago’s “Birth Project”—a feminist initiative from the early 1980s, in which Chicago collaborated with more than 150 artists to create dozens of images combining painting and needlework that celebrate various aspects of the birth process; from the painful to the mythical. This series celebrated the birth-giving capacity of women along with their creative spirit. With women’s reproductive rights under siege, and the arts reemerging as a forum of social and political expression, we chatted with the Glen Arbor Arts Center’s gallery manager Sarah Bearup-Neal about VESSELS and the inclusion of a work from “Birth Project.”
