WOMEN IN THE ARTS: Ferris Olin, left, and Judith K. Brodsky will be at Labyrinth Books on Thursday, December 6 at 6 p.m., to discuss their book, “Junctures in Women’s Leadership: The Arts.”(Photograph by Nick Romanenko)

Princeton residents Judith K. Brodsky and Ferris Olin will be at Labyrinth discussing their book, Junctures in Women’s Leadership: The Arts (Rutgers Univ. Press) on Thursday, December 6 at 6 p.m.

Concerning this third volume of the series Junctures: Case Studies in Women’s Leadership, edited by Mary K. Trigg, Brodsky says, “the genesis of this series is the fact that there are virtually no case studies of women leaders. Harvard Business School, the primary publisher of case studies on leadership, has published thousands on men, and almost none on women. This series, while aimed at the general public, is also intended to fill that gap and provide meaningful biographies of women to inspire students to take on leadership.” 

The women in the book range from socialite Bertha Honoré Palmer, who used her money and position to persuade the U.S. Congress to fund a building that would highlight women’s achievements at the 1893 World’s Fair, to Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, a member of the Salish Kootenai nation, who grew up on a reservation and became a nationally-renowned artist whose art changed stereotypes of Native Americans.

Among the other women featured are Louise Noun, Samella Lewis, Julia Miles, Miriam Colón, Bernice Steinbaum, Anne d’Harnoncourt, Martha Wilson, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Kim Berman, Gilane Tawadros, Joanne Smith, and Veomanee Douangdala.

Judith Brodsky is a distinguished professor emerita of visual arts at Rutgers University. She is the co-founder and co-director of the Rutgers Institute for Women and Art, a part of the Institute for Women’s Leadership at Rutgers. Brodsky formerly held leadership positions within national art organizations including the College Art Association, ArtTable, the Women’s Caucus for Art, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. An artist herself, she also founded the Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper, now named the Brodsky Center in her honor.

Ferris Olin is a distinguished professor emerita, and art historian, curator, women’s studies scholar, and librarian, who held numerous leadership positions at Rutgers University, including as co-founder and co-director of the Rutgers Institute for Women and Art, curator of the Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series, founding head of the Margery Somers Foster Center, executive officer of the Rutgers Institute for Research on Women and the NJ chair in Women’s Studies, and director of the University’s Art Library. She has held numerous leadership positions within national and state art organizations.