The Women in Architecture Series at the Everson Museum of Art highlights the contributions of women in the field. The series wraps up this week — the final week of Women’s History Month — with a lecture from Lori Brown, a professor of architecture at Syracuse University.  

The series began last fall to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Everson Museum of Art’s construction. Previous guest lecturers include women architects like Linda Zhang, Julia Czerniak and Yutaka Sho.

DJ Hellerman, the curator of art & programs at the Everson, said the purpose of the Women in Architecture Series is to highlight local architects who are working in innovative ways.

In her presentation Thursday at 6:30 p.m., Brown will discuss the projects she has been working on the past decade. Some of these projects, she says, aim to create more exposure for women in architecture.

Her other projects deal with the intersections between gender and identity, particularly in politicized spaces.

“The more politically motivated work was, in part, started because I was really frustrated with the disciplined slowness, if not apathy, to engage the really political, spatial relationship,” she said.

Brown found inspiration from women architecture students early on in her career at SU. She said the students talked with her about their frustrations regarding the lack of conversations surrounding women architects in their classes.

Brown faced frustrations similar to those of her students when working as an architect in New York City as she noticed an absence of women in leadership positions.

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In addition to being an architect and a professor, Brown is co-founder of a nonprofit organization. She teamed up with Nina Freedman to found ArchiteXX, a New York City-based nonprofit that promotes gender equity in the field of architecture.

Qiana Williams, the former curator of public programs at the Everson, initiated the Women in Architecture Series and chose its speakers. Hellerman, Curator of Education Kimberly Griffiths and Assistant Curator Steffi Chappell have helped see the program to completion.

Previous speaker Yutaka Sho went on a sabbatical abroad last year, where she spent seven months in Rwanda and five months in Japan. In Rwanda, Sho worked on constructing free housing and public building projects, including a health center and a library.

In January, as part of the Women in Architecture Series, Sho discussed her experiences in Rwanda and Japan and the role of architects in the global development industry.

Sho said the series is a way to educate others about the need for reform in the global development industry, which she said exploits both an economic and political gap.

“It was an opportunity for me to paint a picture of the situation we work in and make sure that people understand it’s not all glorious and pretty and doing good,” Sho said.

She believes that collectively — with the audience and others in the field — work like this can help create change within the industry.

“(We) start to think about how we can improve the working conditions, the discrepancies that exist among the countries, among the classes, among the races,” she said.

Published on March 26, 2019 at 11:03 pm

Contact Mandy: ackrayna@syr.edu | @MandyKraynak