Paula Goldman Creative Director, founder of the Imagining Ourselves Project

PLEASE, INTRODUCE YOURSELF..
I’m Paula Goldman, the founder and Creative Director of the Imagining Ourselves project. I'm a human rights practitioner, a filmmaker, and an anthropologist, and have done a lot of work on the intersection of visual art and intergroup conflict resolution.

HOW DID YOU DECIDE TO START THIS PROJECT?
I've lived in many places around the world-- born in Singapore, lived in India, Bosnia, Guatemala, etc. etc.. While I'm American, and while I'm undoubtedly grateful for the many opportunities being a US citizen affords me, I've also always felt part of a larger international community – a community which transcends national and cultural borders. And most of my friends share this perspective. Either they themselves have lived in multiple countries for significant lengths of time, or, for the few who have not, they have what I would call classic “hyphenated” identities—they are Anglo-Indian, they are African-American, they are North African French… The point is that our imaginations and identities (and to some extent, our loyalties) stretch beyond the boundaries of the country in which we happen to reside at the moment—and I think that's true for large percentages of our generation, what I would call a transnational or an increasingly international generation. In any case, that's all by way of background. The project actually started as sort of a fluke. I was sitting around having breakfast one day with my friend Denise, commenting on how many completely amazing young women we knew from all over the world. We were seriously stunned by the overwhelmingly positive, courageous, bold spirit that characterized so many of our friends as they embarked on creating their young adult lives. So many were confidently out there working to transform social problems as they saw fit, so many were breaking boundaries in the workplace, and so many were creating the most amazing partnerships and marriages with their boyfriends/girlfriends/partners, and so many were making the most groundbreaking and exciting art and filmwork too. And we were also amazed at how truly international our community really was. And I said to Denise, “Why don't we do a book or an exhibit to capture this spirit for our generation?” I was just kind of joking but she thought it was a good idea, so I pushed ahead with her steadfast and amazing support. The project really wouldn't have happened without her encouragement, and without the encouragement of some of my older mentors who took on advising me on the project with great joy and generosity. I had no idea what I was getting into. I had no idea that the project would take years and years and be as large in scope and significance as it's turned out to be. But of course, I wouldn't change a thing.



WHAT’S THIS PROJECT ABOUT?
The project literally creates a forum for a new generation of women in their twenties and thirties globally-- one that is international in scope and positive in tone. We bring together women from all different backgrounds-- artists to athletes to homemakers (though a predominant number of artists)-- and ask them to answer a question, "What defines your generation of women?" We then bring together their work- both visual and written-- into an anthology, a virtual (web-based) exhibit, and a comprehensive media and educational outreach campaign.

WHY THE NEED TO CREATE THIS PROJECT?
A couple of reasons. First, because no one's really doing it. There are so many amazing qualities that define our generation of women—from the ways that coming of professional age in the internet era has changed our professional lives to the ways that globalization has in many ways (and however unevenly) opened up much of the world to travel, cultural consumption and exchange during our youth and young adulthood. These developments have had really specific consequences for young women, and not just in the realm of art and artistic representation. Consider, for example, that in the last twenty years, the gender gap in literacy has decreased over 10 percent in almost every region of the world (save, of course, where there wasn't a gap)—and the gender gap in higher education enrollment rates has all but disappeared in most regions. That's hugely significant, but no one really seems to comment on it, and what it means or doesn't mean for us as a group. But it's not just that no one has yet really captured the ethos of our generation of women. It's also that in creating a community that extends across national boundaries, we have access to stories and perspectives we otherwise might not have—stories which educate us about people and cultures we might not know anything about. It's easy to write that off as a naïve humanistic “let's all get along” approach to the world, but sometimes access to information can have really important political consequences—most importantly, helping to diffuse the kinds of conflict and ethnic militarization that seems to have dominated these past few decades. The final and most important reason is bringing together such a large community of incredible young women creates so much potential for cross-fertilization of important social efforts. Our goal is to reach a large public audience using the power of art and imagery and compelling narrative storytelling. But once we've reached that audience, we also want to give them resources for action. We want virtual exhibit audiences to link to various non-profits around the world doing important work to improve the lives and livelihoods of the world's women (and men!).

CAN YOU TELL US OF ALL WORK YOU HAVE TO DO TO CHOOSE THE CONTRIBUTIONS AND TO PUBLISH THEM?

Our contributions run the map from a dictated verbal account from a Somalian camel farmer's daughter to an eloquent essay by the daughter of a former US Vice President-- from highly artistic painting from Nigeria to novice photography from France. Our philosophy: however you want to express yourself that we can publish in a book or curate in an exhibit. We've had our international curatorial committee (for the exhibit) and editorial committee (for the book) go through literally thousands of responses in more than 11 languages (not including different types of visual languages), and to bring them together in a cohesive, engaging visual melange. That's the fun part.

WHAT KIND OF WOMEN SENT THEIR STUFF TO YOU AND MOSTLY WHAT KIND OF _EXPRESSION (POETRY, VISUAL ARTS) IS MORE USED?
Photography seems to be a big one—I would say the majority were visual submissions and that photography was quite ubiquitous. A lot of painting as well. A ton of entries depicting the female body, female physicality, etc.. And a lot of writing on globalization, too!

The International Museum of Women
PO Box 190038
San Francisco CA 94119, USA
+1 415 543-4669x12

imagining-ourselves@imow.org
www.imaginingourselves.org