Female Voices in Art, Joanna Meacock, Curator of British Art at Glasgow Museums

Joanna (Jo) Meacock (b. 1975, Bolton, UK) is Curator of British Art at Glasgow Life Museums, responsible for paintings, sculpture, prints and drawings, 1600-1960. She gained an MA History of Art at the University of Glasgow in 1997, followed by a PhD there in 2001 examining D.G. Rossetti’s secularisation of religious iconography. Formerly the Scottish Regional Research Manager for the Public Catalogue Foundation, Jo has also worked as Data Editing Manager for the National Inventory Research Project, Research Associate for James McNeill Whistler: The Etchings: A Catalogue Raisonné and Editor for Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951. A Trustee of the Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust and member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of the Scottish Society for Art History, Jo is passionate about inclusion and art for everyone. She has published on Pre-Raphaelitism and Aestheticism, Scottish 19th and early 20th-century art and women artists, and is currently working on a book on the Pre-Raphaelites and Scotland.

Could you tell us something about your role in the art world?

I am an art historian and museum curator with a particular passion for making art accessible and relevant to all. I feel very blessed to work for Glasgow Life Museums whose ethos is equality, anti-racism and the breaking down of social barriers.
 
What did you enjoy about being a part of this project?

Artfully Dressed is such an inspiring, affirming project. How marvellous to be celebrating women in the artworld in this way. And what a privilege to be part of it. Carla van de Puttelaar is a wonder.
 
Do you have a favourite artist?

I love the sculptor Mary Pownall. There is an amazingly dynamic sculpture by her in Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum called The Harpy Celaeno (exh. Rome 1902), which is actually a self-portrait. It’s absolutely terrifying. Consumed by wrath Celaeno grasps her breast and issues her prophecy. You needed to be strong to make it as a female artist at the time – even more so to be a sculptor, considered a more masculine profession. I wouldn’t mess with her, that’s for sure!
 
What is your earliest memory involving art?
From a young age I was always drawing, always had coloured pencils on my desk. Art was my happy place. I remember discovering a book on Gustav Klimt in the school library which held me spellbound – the colour, the pattern, the gorgeous women. I kept coming back to it. I was also very lucky that my local art gallery, Kirkcaldy Art Gallery, had a fabulous art collection which I loved visiting. I was pushed down a more academic route at school but was delighted at university to find that art history was a subject – I had found my vocation!

Do you have any special thoughts about the position of women in the art world?

Women have too long been overlooked! My professional mission is to bring greater equality into our museum collections, exhibitions and art historical writing, telling the stories of female artists who have been marginalised or forgotten. As a woman in the art world, it can be tough juggling motherhood and the demands of a career – there is still discrimination, although less overt – so we definitely need to stick together.
 
What are you wearing, and is there a story behind it?

I love colour! There is not very much in the way of black in my wardrobe. Colour is life and energy. I buy clothes in charity shops – that’s where the jacket and shoes I am wearing come from. The skirt is by Kemi Telford and is a celebration of womanhood, a response in pattern to the work of Sonia Delauney, Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Anni Albers. I feel empowered wearing it!
 
What are you currently working on?

I’m delighted to be working on a new display in the Looking at Art Gallery in Kelvingrove focusing on a painting by Manchester artist, suffragist and activist Annie Swynnerton, The Soul’s Journey – The Soul’s Awakening (1922–23). As a female artist, Swynnerton had to fight for equality and this painting of a mountainous landscape with an anguished-looking naked female figure, may be a reflection on the struggles that she faced in her career. It was painted when she was in her late 70s and had finally been elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in London, despite exhibiting there since 1878. Shockingly, she was the first female Associate to be appointed since the organisation’s founding in 1768. The display looks at Swynnerton’s innovative artistic practice and how she had a habit of extending her paintings, adding on bits from other paintings. She really was a modern woman, recycling and fighting the patriarchy!
 
Could you mention a project, an institution that, or a person who has been important or inspiring for your career and why?
Whistler scholar Professor Margaret MacDonald has made a big impact on me as an art historian. She took me on as a PhD student and not only rigorously critiqued my work but showed me great warmth and care. Then as colleague on the Whistler etchings catalogue raisonné project she taught me what it was to be passionate about the physicality of an object, the beauty of line and tone, the quality of paper, the richness of ink. Margaret is herself a wonderful watercolourist and always brings you back to the object – a very important lesson when researching and theorising.