6+: a women’s art collective, 2005-2010

Sherry Wiggins was a founding member of 6+: a women’s art collective, a group of six US-based artists: Sama Alshaibi, Wendy Babcox, Rozalinda Borcila, Mary Rachel Fanning, Yana Payusova and Wiggins. The impetus for the 6+ collective was to develop a supportive network of women artists internationally through a practice of direct engagement that included the production of exhibitions, publications, workshops and community engagements. The 6+ collective worked in the United States and the West Bank in the occupied territories of Palestine between 2005 and 2010, using art as a vehicle for witness and exchange.

6+ supported several workshops and projects with young women in the Dheisheh refugee camp in the West Bank. These workshops involved storytelling, journaling, audio and video recording and bookmaking as forms of investigation, expression and documentation. Several art projects resulted from these workshops, which were shown in the US and in Palestine, including Turning Our Tongues – Audio Journals from the Dheisheh Refugee Camp and The Daughters of Palestine, a web-based project.

 6+ initiated an art exhibit titled Secrets with Palestinian women artists. Between 2006 and 2008, the exhibit traveled to Bethlehem, Ramallah and Jerusalem, then to Boulder, Colorado and Chicago. The 6+ artists exhibited their own works alongside that of Palestinian artists Nadira Araj, Reem Bader, Rana Bishara, Rula Halawani, Natalie Handal, Shuruq Harb, Faten Nastas and Larissa Sansour. A beautiful catalogue, designed by Pamela Beverly-Quigley, was produced for this exhibit and includes essays by Maymanah Farhat and Lucy R. Lippard.

You can download the PDF of the Secrets catalogue here.