Art Connect Women

Huge thanks to our team and everyone who helped make Safe Spaces Brno a reality. I deeply appreciate the way the team came together and grew throughout the course of this first step in our project.

We hope that you will reach out and also support directly. Donation info is available on their website. By speaking up, reaching out for help, we can work toward breaking the cycles of domestic violence.

✨ Thank you Tamara for providing the space ✨

Thank you Klara for your thoughtful reflection and I’ve shared it here below as well… x Valentine

Repost:
“Today we are closing the SAFE SPACES exhibition space at KUMST. And I have to say that we succeeded 👌

Paintings, installations, happenings, workshops - intensive work, beautiful and deep, which changes structures. We have opened up the difficult topic of domestic violence and it is not and has not always been easy to maintain strength, follow the flow and go to a place where our hearts are open. Mutual support, conversations, gentleness, inner strength helped us create what we were aiming for - SAFE SPACE.

The elements joined and we were water, fire, earth and air. They communicated and showed other levels.

Thank you for being a part ❤️ Many thanks to Bella Valentina Art and Art Connect Women for initiating this project! And to everyone who participated or came to watch, it was a great ride.” 🏄‍♀️

Repost• Dneska uzavíráme prostor výstavy SAFE SPACES v KUMSTu. A musím říct, že se nám povedla.

Obrazy, instalace, happening, workshopy - intenzivní práce, krásná a hluboká, co mění struktury. Otevřely jsme náročné téma domácího násilí a není a nebylo vždy lehké udržet sílu, sledovat flow a jít do místa, kde jsou naše srdce otevřená. Vzájemná podpora, rozhovory, jemnost, vnitřní síla nám pomohlo vytvořit to, kam jsme mířily - SAFE SPACE.

Živly se připojily a byla a námi voda, oheň, země i vzduch. Komunikovali a ukazovali další úrovně.

Děkuji, že jsem mohla být součástí ❤️ Moc díky za iniciaci tohoto projektu! A všem, kdo se podíleli a nebo se přišli podívat, byla to parádní jízda 🏄‍♀️

Breathtaking work by our Andrea Ehret. Wouldn’t you agree?

You’re invited to the Safe Spaces Happening by Art Connect Society. What is it? An IMMERSIVE ARTFUL EXPERIENCE, with poetry, live music, and much more. Join us on a journey at 6pm, Tuesday, August 20 at KUMST Brno! Don’t be late!

HAPPENING STARTS 6:00 pm SHARP

Event details:
https://www.facebook.com/share/LcuxfE9VKmuJnucg/?mibextid=9l3rBW

100 WOMEN
We have created one safe space—a sanctuary, a portal, a cave. This is a place of strength, joy, and creative energy, but also where wounds and traumas are stored. Where the essence of our experiences are acknowledged, a place of absolute safety and truthfulness.

The 100 WOMEN installation addresses the taboo of domestic violence using ordinary textile and paper. The cotton textile base represents the labor of women in the home. Crocheting, knitting have always been the domain of women. They gathered while creating everyday items and shared their troubles within the community. Flowers, forming an inner crown within the safe space of the va**na symbolize gestures often used by partners to mask pain, as well as the longing for a flourishing home. Each of the 100 flowers represents a voice—light for those who felt safe in their home and dark for those who did not. The installation reveals that half of the women surveyed did not have their basic need for safety met.

Concept:
Valentine Svihalek

Design:
Svihalek, Šiška, Hanganu, Lei

Performance:
Ehret, Drdacka, Vitova

I would like to express my deepest heartfelt thanks to our exhibition team. Each one of you added something critical and important to this process, unfolding into who we are together, as human beings, artists, women, seekers…

Thank you for lifting the voices of women in our community and bringing the Safe Spaces project to life. Thank you to KUMST Brno for believing in our project and providing the space.

This was only a teaser. Join us on August 20 for the Happening, an immersive experience. Sign up free at www.artconnectsociety.com

Help us raise funds for and contact us to purchase incredible artwork. Catalogue and more info on the website. Join us in opening the conversation to tolerance, understanding, and solidarity.

With love and gratitude,
Valentine
Bella Valentina Art Art Connect Women Art Connect Society

Aranka II
Safe Spaces Exhibition
On view in KUMST Brno
Available now via catalogue www.artconnectsociety.com

She Was A Dreamer

Safe Spaces Exhibition
On view in
100 x 100 cm
Mixed media on canvas
Available now via catalogue www.artconnectsociety.com

Paintings on view KUMST Brno and available until end of August.

Contact us to reserve your favorite artwork and help us support supporting women victims of domestic violence.

www.artconnectsociety.com

“Painting is purely an intuitive way of expressing myself, my energy, and my deepest thoughts and emotions. It is never planned or restricted, it is freedom!”

Lucie Svoboda



Artwork available through Safe Spaces Exhibition
Link in bio to Art Connect Society Gallery

www.artconnectsociety.com

“In her vulnerability lies courage, in her fear, fighting, and in her sadness, determination.”

Klara Langrova
langrova.art Reflecting on Safe Spaces

Artwork available through Safe Spaces Exhibition

www.artconnectsociety.com

Safe Spaces by is a heartfelt project where art meets advocacy, shedding light on domestic violence.

Our featured installation, 100 WOMEN, is the centerpiece of this exhibit. It amplifies the voices and experiences of women in our community. The installation is a tribute to their strength and resilience.

Join us to find out more and be sure to sign up for our not to be missed Happening on our website or link in bio.

Opening event
📍 Kumst, Brno 📅 July 16 ⏰ 6 PM

Curious Anatomies
By Ellen Burgin, USA

Acrylic and Ink on Panel, 20 inches x 20 inches
The title for this painting was borrowed from an article about the 17c. anatomical tables—six of which are house in the Royal College of Physicians gallery in London. Each table is a dissection of a human’s vein, nerve and arterial systems burnished under varnish and are visually stunning. You can see them here https://history.rcplondon.ac.uk/

“We know that for too many women and children home is not that safe space that it should be. A safe space should be a place where you can be yourself, whoever you are. Safe to speak, safe to tell your story, safe to create and to dream. Safe spaces are something we all need, but too many are lacking.”

Elisabeth Handelsby Reflecting on Safe Spaces

Artwork available through Safe Spaces Exhibition

www.artconnectsociety.com
Art Connect Society

“We artists all have a role to play in physical or psychological violence against women. Art can be used to convey, soothe and sometimes heal. I think that many women today have been victims of violence and are talking about it. Words have finally been set free.”
filipe Reflecting on Safe Spaces

Artwork available through Safe Spaces Exhibition

www.artconnectsociety.com

ŠTETL

ŠTETL FEST PŘEDSTAVUJE: HODINY UTRPENÍ ZAPOMEŇ. Vernisáž výstavy Helgy Hoškové-Weissové
Čtvrtek 29. 8. od 11:00, vila Stiassni
Akademická malířka Helga Hošková-Weissová, která přežila Terezín, Osvětim, Freiberg a Mauthausen, vytvořila kromě světoznámých terezínských dětských kreseb řadu malířských a grafických souborů, které jsou vedle svých uměleckých kvalit svědectvím o historických událostech, jichž se stala nedobrovolným účastníkem. Brněnská retrospektivní výstava se uskuteční v reprezentativních prostorách Vila Stiassni u příležitosti významného životního jubilea autorky, která v listopadu 2024 oslaví 95. narozeniny.

E-Mail [email protected] for more info ✨
Art Connect Women Art Connect Society

“The title “Perfidia” which translates as treachery, refers to the disillusionment I suffered after becoming a mother myself in a villageless modern world. The studies depict my own mother, she was 21 years old at the time of the pictures, she had 3 children already then. Here she is depicted in the midst of a dinner party, people around her, celebrating the joyous occasion, yet she is just like every other day being a mother, feeding her oldest son, while holding my middle sister. I’m sitting opposite to her in my grandmother’s lap. No one is helping her, is though as if no one sees her, no one knows how tired her mind, body and soul were.

I have lived and walked through some of the same situations myself. Decades apart from each other, I still feel that we “women” have been deceived, deceived into bringing children into this world and then added on endless burdens and somehow expected to survive on our own and in this modern times even expected to thrive and succeed.”

Perfidia Acto I
Oil on paper
41.5 x 49.5 cm

Art Connect Society Safe Spaces Prague Exhibition 2024

Congratulations to Randi Matushevitz for the Curatorial Choice Video Installation Award for her works The Swim qnd Coiffed.

Stay in the know and reserve now for our Safe Spaces Interactive benefiting Rosa Centrum For Women at www.artconnectsociety.com

Congratulations to Renee Kuharchuk for the Curatorial Choice Painting Award for her works Acceptance and Picking.

Stay in the know and reserve now for our Safe Spaces Interactive benefiting Rosa Centrum For Women at www.artconnectsociety.com

I’m thrilled to announce the list of selected artists for the upcoming Safe Spaces exhibition at Gram Prague, from November 7 to December 11, 2024, is now available.

The creative vision and talent within our community have truly impressed the curatorial team. Andrea Ehret and I have had the pleasure of co-curating with Prague-based Kristína Kadáková on this inspiring project. We were deeply moved by all the compelling submissions.

With such a variety and quality of works submitted, we faced challenging decisions. However, your contribution will play a significant role in fostering meaningful dialogues and promoting empowerment within our community. Together, we’ll bring powerful works with often underrepresented themes, fostering connections that support nurturing dialogues among women, mothers, and caregivers, to raise awareness of unseen scars, tolerance, understanding, and solidarity. Our efforts identify needs, resources, and connect individuals with information and support while raising funds for domestic violence awareness and services at Rosa Centrum For Women.

We’re honored to showcase the selected works as part of this important event. Due to space limitations, we’ve curated a special online show to include a few additional works, artists.

Exhibition at the Gram Prague & Online Show:

.filipe
.artist .francis.drawings

Helena Lněničková

Online Show:
* Ivana Orviska
* Klára Langrová
* Sara Glupker
* Linda Spitsen
* Katarína Kalmanová
* Petra Kubík Nandrážiová
* Theodora Dea
* Blanka Morikawa

A special thanks to our Hana Nemeckova for her inspiring work presented on our flyer. Thank you for being a part of the Safe Spaces project and for contributing to our mission of empowerment through art.

With ❤️ ,
Valentine Svihalek�ACS Founder & Director

“The secret, Alice, is to surround yourself with people who make your heart smile. It’s then, only then, that you’ll find Wonderland.”

ALL THE FEELS, every time I revisit multipassionate Lucie Drlikova… whimsical, grounded in the natural world, yet ethereally inspiring ✨

“This is the clean, harmonious minimalism that I love so much in my art as well as my personal life.”

We are pleased to welcome Blanka Morikawa to the community and share a glimpse into her studio and vision…
art ✨️