University Women In The Arts Investigates Under-Representation Of Women In Visual Arts In Latest Event

University Women in the Arts, the one off scheme to address why so many more women study the arts but less women work in the arts, particularly in artistic and leadership roles, will consider under-representation of women in the visual art world in their next event.

The event on September 4th will be with University Women in the Arts mentor Kate Bryan, Head of Collections at Soho House, presenter of Sky Arts' "The Art Show", "Portrait Artist of the Year" and "Landscape Artist of the Year", former Director of Art15 and The Fine Art Society, and winner of the Women of the Future Arts and Culture award.

The event will offer advice to women wanting to work in the visual art world and Kate will discuss her own experiences and respond to the Freelands Foundation's recent report.

The Freelands Foundation recently found, via its second report, that although women outnumber men in art school they are still underrepresented at professional level. The report found 63% of undergraduates studying creative arts and design in 2016 were female, according to UCAS (the Universities and Colleges Admissions Services). In contrast, 29% of artists represented by London's major galleries were female, and 3% of auction lots in the top ten highest-grossing sales of each of the Sotheby's Contemporary Art Evening Sales in 2016 were by women artists.

Kate Bryan said: "Despite the fact that there are by far more women graduating from art school and art courses at university, when it comes to the art market and representation of artists in the market women are considerably less visible. On average across various sections of the artworld women occupy only 30%, despite the number qualified. There are changes afoot with exceptional new women leaders in the art world and it feels like a very crucial time to galvanise support to address this issue of underrepresentation. It's a huge priority of mine to support women in the artworld and I want to work with University Women in the Arts to investigate where we all need to put our energy to create a fairer playing field."

Jennifer Tuckett, Director of University Women in the Arts said: "We are delighted to be working with Kate Bryan to look at how to address why more women study art but less women are working in the visual art world. The statistics from the Freeland Foundation's recent report, for example that only 29% of artists represented by London's major galleries, show a big difference compared to 63% undergraduates studying arts being female and I think we urgently need to look at how to improve the transition from studying to working for women. We are looking forward to discussing how to address this plus hearing Kate's advice and experiences."

The event take will take place at 4pm on September 4th and tickets can be booked at https://universitywomeninthearts-katebryan.eventbrite.co.uk

Other University Women in the Arts mentors include Vicky Featherstone, Artistic Director of The Royal Court Theatre, Tamara Rojo, Artistic Director of The English National Ballet, Jude Kelly, Artistic Director of the Southbank Centre and founder of the Women of the World Festival, Joanna Prior, Managing Director of Penguin Books, Amanda Foreman, academic, writer and presenter of "The Ascent of Women", and others.

For more information on the University Women in the Arts scheme in general and to join the mailing list to be kept informed of future events please go to: www.universitywomeninthearts.com