I'm feeling overly generous toward women today. Jane Fortune, the founder of the incredible organization @AWA_Foundation has just passed away. If you don’t know about her, I’m here to tell about this spectacular woman and what she has done for women in the arts. 
People called her Indiana Jane, not just because she was born in Indiana but because she hunted down works of art by women in the storehouses of museums in Florence, Italy, raised money to have them conserved, and put the works on exhibition. This has been her life’s work.
Without Jane and AWA, The Uffizi might not have put on an exhibition of the works of Plautilla Nelli (1524-1588), a long-forgotten artist. advancingwomenartists.org/shop/plautilla…
I wonder if @UffiziGalleries would have begun its recent project to highlight more women artists without the voice of Jane Fortune at their door.
Without Jane and AWA, the book Invisible Women: Forgotten Artists of Florence would never have come into being. And PBS wouldn’t have made an Emmy award–winning documentary about it.
advancingwomenartists.org/shop/invisible…
advancingwomenartists.org/shop/invisible…
It’s hard to imagine what the @MuseoNovecento, Florence’s first museum dedicated to 20th-century art, would be like without the works by 35 women artists that Jane and AWA helped gather for the museum, which opened in 2014.
This institution had been a dream in the making since the devastating flood of 1966, when so many works were lost.
AWA published this book about the flood and the art that was rescued and new works that were donated to the museum:
advancingwomenartists.org/shop/when-the-…
advancingwomenartists.org/shop/when-the-…
AWA published several books focused on their projects. I have edited or proofread many of them. advancingwomenartists.org/shop/
Every time I finished one, I felt so moved by the significance of the work that Jane and her team (which includes writers, editors, conservators, museum directors, curators, scholars).
Jane was dedicated to Florence, and the city is dedicated to her. In 2016, mayor Dario Nardella presented her with the famed and prestigious award the Fiorino d’Oro, for her work at AWA. theflorentine.net/art-culture/20…
Can you imagine the hard work and the persuasion needed for Jane to do this work in those early years? She forged a place and was accepted.
It has just been confirmed that her funeral will be held, on October 9 at 6pm, at the high altar in the Basilica of Santa Croce. This is an honor reserved for the few.
Support women. Support women in the arts. The work is vital and is always an uphill battle. Now that Jane is gone, the work continues. Linda Falcone, director of AWA, will need our help. advancingwomenartists.org/home-1
In that spirit, I am sharing with you the work that my friend @andevers, my fellow @BennMFA_Writing alum, is doing at @secondshelfbks. She is on the hunt for books by women writers that have often been overlooked.
Please support her. I pre-ordered her first quarterly journal today. thesecondshelf.backerkit.com/hosted_preorde…
Wherever women are advocating for women artists, whether they be visual artists, writers, dancers, let’s lift them up and support them. It is vital that we do so.
Thank you, Jane. Let’s keep going.
Jane was very much a part of @TheFlorentine, the English-speaking newspaper in Florence. She wrote for them and they produced several books. I wrote a column for the paper, too, and I just remembered this very morning how she'd encouraged me to write a book based on my writings.
