Art Exhibitions

Be a Lady They Said

Photographs by Chelsea Bradway

March 4 - April 28, 2023 in the Meeting Room Gallery

Photographs by Chelsea Bradway will be on exhibit in the library's Meeting Room Gallery during the months of March and April 2023.

 

 

The artist says of her work:

Empowerment: the process of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one's life and claiming one's rights.

Empowering women is essential to the health and social development of families, communities, and countries. When women are living safe, fulfilled, and productive lives, they can reach their full potential. Empowering girls is the key to economic growth, political stability, and social transformation.

"All women are a force to be reckoned with.” This phrase came to mind after I read the poem by Camille Rainville’s, “Be a Lady They Said”.
https://writingsofafuriouswoman.wordpress.com/2017/12/09/be-a-lady-they-said/

The portraits of these women were created in a safe space surrounded by their favorite music, and the ease of conversation. Through this process, women were made to feel as if they could present their true authentic selves. How they felt empowered, a force, a strength no matter what the occupation, race, age, or sexual orientation. Oftentimes women are told how to act, what to wear, and even how to think. They need to look feminine but not too sexy and be confident but not too assertive or threatening.

Women are powerful when they join together whether it be in a group or in single photographs displayed as a collective. When the silence is broken around their conflicting social and professional identities when they can reclaim themselves from fear and stand up for what they believe in.

This exhibition is my way to say that the female voices are whispering, speaking, and shouting through these photographs, We will not be quiet.

 

Chelsea Bradway is a New England photographer drawn to photograph people in situations that bring the viewer’s awareness of their strength, beauty, and everyday struggles. Born in the Berkshires, Chelsea traveled to Paris, Belgium, and England, which influenced her artistic scope of the larger community that surrounds each of us.

Chelsea has shown her work regionally and internationally, including at ArtsWorcester, the Cultural Center of Cape Cod, the Cambridge Art Association, the Fitchburg Art Museum, the Hopkinton Center for the Arts, Southborough Open Land Foundation's Art on the Trails, and the Julia Margaret Cameron Award Exhibition for Women Photographers in Barcelona, Spain.

 

For more information on Chelsea Bradway's art, visit: allthingssparkley.com.

 

Exhibitions are free and handicapped accessible. Exhibitions in the library Meeting Room are available for viewing whenever the library is open and the room is not in use for a meeting. Please check the library Events Calendar for availability.