On my journey to earning a Doctorate in Education, I began a historical exploration of female art leaders in the United States. My research uncovered that for over 200-years in the United States, women have been responsible for the founding and function of major contemporary art museums that patrons have come to idealize. Moreover, pioneering women were catalysts in setting up education programs for women during the 1800s, which shaped the art museum workforce dominated by women today. Despite their overwhelming contributions to museology, female art museum directors are rare in large scale institutions with operating budgets over $20 million.

My doctoral dissertation, Dames Paving Pathways to Directorships. A Study About Female Leaders in Art Museums in the United States, examines this gender dissonance through a series of interviews with women who hold these prestigious positions in large-scale art museums nationwide. Conclusions of my study uncovered that most women in these leadership positions continue to face sexism and bigotry not just from men, but women, too. Unanimously, participants conveyed trying various ways to overcome the barriers they faced such as ignoring it, rising above it, growing from it, addressing it, dismissing it, and even forgiving it. However, after 200-years in art museums, women are still carrying the burden of oppression and discrimination.

Since earning my doctorate degree, I’ve maintained an interest in research and writing on topics of cultural diversity and gender equity in the arts based on Biosocial Theory, coined by Alice Eagly and Wendy Wood in 2013, which contends that humans evolve and can meet the demands of the societies in which they live and serve. I remain committed to uncovering, discovering, altering, and demonstrating women’s capabilities as natural leaders, and in most cases, data shows that women’s leadership style is preferred because of their innate ability to build consensus, to listen, and to respond. As one participant in my study stated, “…[Men] would not acknowledge a question. They wouldn’t unless one of them said it.” I contend that we do not need them to hear us, just watch us and learn!

Prior to earning a doctorate degree, I attended California College of the Arts in San Francisco because uncommon to most two-year Master of Fine Arts programs, they required a written thesis to be granted the terminal degree. At the time, I wanted this theoretical challenge.

Proposed Solution is my thesis project that I wrote in 2002 while in graduate school. At the time, I wanted to write about “context” and used my artwork as a gauge to contextualize the art world that I had come to know intimately. As the title indicates, I established the problems of contemporary art culture first, then I deconstructed the origin and offered an alternative.

Proposed Solution was purposely written to be read like a script. There are five distinct voices identified by fonts. The narrative structure of the document models a script format from the 4 film, The Terminator. In my opinion, both, Proposed Solution and The Terminator are synonymous because they attempt to rectify an impending failed future based on present day actions.