Sponsored by Bennington Potters, Reimagining the Distaff Toolkit, along with Tool Aesthetics: Selections from the Permanent Collection, will be on exhibit at the Bennington Museum from April 4 through June 1. The Opening Reception is Friday, April 4 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Be among the first to view this fascinating show, meet the curator of the show, Rickie Solinger and some of the artists, participate in Gallery Talks, and enjoy hors d’oeuvres and refreshments. Fee for members is $12 and for non-members $15.

The approximately thirty-five pieces of art in this exhibit are on loan from artists that represent all geographic regions of the country. Betye Saar is lending one of her washboard pieces entitled National Racism: We Was Mostly ‘Bout Survival. Saar’s works, which often start with the washboard and other domestic implements and tools, serve as vehicles or surfaces for representing and conjuring with the past, in this case, African American labor history. Saar is known for her multimedia collages, box assemblages, altars and installations consisting of found materials. In her work, Saar voices her political, racial, religious and gender concerns in an effort to “reach across the barriers of art and life, to bridge cultural diversities and forge new understandings.” Saar continues to work and live in Los Angeles.

Marie Watt, a Seneca artist from Portland, Oregon, works in pen and ink, printmaking, mixed media, and installation art. Watt explores social and cultural histories found in everyday objects, such as reclaimed blankets. Three of Watt’s blanket-based works, including Conversation: Plow and Blanket Column will be on exhibit.

Flo Oy Wong is contributing a piece constructed in part out of kitchen implements from her immigrant family’s Chinese restaurant, while Hudson Valley artist Judith Hoyt will lend two pieces, one of which is a figurative piece made from an old grater entitled Grater Woman. Among the other artists included in the show are Tom Cohen with Battle Ax, featuring “Jiggs” and the ubiquitous rolling pin, Tracy Krumm with Yoke/Folded and Cavity/Strainer, both crocheted metal pieces, Laura Splan showing Doilies, freestanding machine-embroidered lace mounted on cotton velvet, and Dave Cole with an embellished found dressmaker’s figure entitled Trophy Wife No. 3 of 8.

Reimagining the Distaff Toolkit is curated by Dr. Rickie Solinger, historian, curator and author. She is the award winning author of books including Wake Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race before Roe v. Wade and Beggars and Choosers: How the Politics of Choice Shapes Adoption, Abortion, and Welfare in the U.S. Solinger curates art exhibitions associated with the themes of her books, with the shows traveling to galleries around the country. Regarding Reimagining the Distaff Toolkit Solinger states “Part of the point of this exhibition is to explore the idea of ‘seeing as context.’ As I imagine the process here, I look at a tool that facilitated very hard and repetitive labor and that evokes women's degradation as domestic drudges. I look again, through my early 21st century eyes, at a moment when ‘old tools’ have become commodified and expensive, and I see costly beauty.”