Artist Story: Mary Ellen Croteau

Growing up, I never knew any artists, nor did I see much art, so I did not know how to be an artist, although that is all I ever wanted to be. There were no art galleries in my neighborhood. I was told “You’re just going to get married and have kids anyway,” and so, OK, that’s what I did. But I never let go of the dream: I decided I would have the kids, and then when they were old enough, I would go back to art school. And so I earned my BFA at 40 and my MFA at 48 years old. (Geeze, this sounds like I don’t love “the kids.” I certainly do. Big XO to Mark, Paul and Rachael!)

But before I went back to school, I met a real live working artist. I met Christina Ramberg when we were working for an end to nuclear weapons in the ‘80s. Here was a successful artist and mother, a teacher and activist, and her example and support were invaluable to me. Such is the power of a role model or mentor in one’s life. There is also enormous power in a supportive partner, in this case, a big XO to Steve Bild, my loving spouse of 33 years who makes it all happen. Every artist needs a patron, and he is mine.

I had my first solo exhibition at Artemisia Gallery, a women’s cooperative gallery in Chicago founded in 1973, during the feminist movement. I became a dues-paying member from 1990 until 1996, when I left for grad school. As an artist’s cooperative with a strong national reputation, it allowed us, the artist owners, to build our own careers. In 1993, we decided to pursue international exchanges. We exhibited, visited and lectured in Italy, Iceland, Scotland, Korea and Colombia, among others. In it’s 30 years, Artemisia hosted the first Chicago exhibitions of many now-famous women artists, as well as the first US exhibition of contemporary Chinese women artists. Artists working together collectively made all that happen. I cannot overstate how important Artemisia gallery was in my career and the careers of hundreds of others. The gallery had hosted 5 exhibitions each month, providing unparalleled opportunity for artists to exhibit their work while controlling how it was seen.

Unfortunately, the gallery closed abruptly in 2003, when new members, focused on their own careers, didn’t want to - or didn’t know how to - do the work it took to run the gallery. Perhaps they did not understand how powerful collective action could be in their careers.

Looking back, all the “breaks” in my art career have come because of, or with, other artists. I have made loads of friends, both here and overseas, which has led to more opportunities. I look for opportunities for them, and they do the same for me. From the start, I preferred this cooperative (and personally rewarding) model over the private for-profit gallery model. I do not depend on selling art to make a living; rather, I concentrate on making art that matters in the world.

I reject the notion that artists who are represented by a gallery are ipso facto better artists because their work has been vetted by arbiters of “good” art. Gallerists are arbiters of what sells, and sell what they happen to like. And there aren’t enough of them to service the number of really good and great artists out here, because there aren’t enough people of modest means buying art. (More on that later.) Nowhere was this made more clear to me than my two year sojourn into the New York “art world” during graduate school. In New York, artist-run galleries were generally dismissed as “vanity” galleries, and were put on the same level as the pay-to-play galleries (Agora, Amsterdam Whitney, Ico, Limner, etc.) that dotted the scene and lived off the dreams and aspirations of artists who wanted to exhibit in New York. It was a system designed to serve the elite and to sucker the artists. More power to you if you can make it in that system, but most won’t.

This is why I love Chicago, and why we have it better here than in NYC. Here, artists can build their own system and get press for it. Artists have opened galleries and performance spaces in their apartments, abandoned buildings and even in the streets. But we must take the next step and think: Who is our audience?

If indeed we make art to be seen, why do we desire to have it bought by collectors who view it as an investment and store it away? And who gains when artist’s work is reduced to a one-liner in “News of the Weird” or the popular media? Why is the average American convinced that contemporary artists are “trying to put one over” on them? It is my sincere belief that all people can appreciate art and all people are creative in some way. We should remember that our talent does not set us apart from the masses - it connects us to them. We need to reconnect with the public, who should be our natural support, and not fall into the trap of making a commodity of ourselves for the monied class, believing only they can understand our genius.

So what can one do? Well, five years ago, I turned the window of my storefront studio into a gallery space where I let artists display their work for a month to every passer-by on the street, with no fees, because I can. This window becomes the perfect place to normalize the art-viewing experience. I want to demystify art for the general public because I want them to understand what I (what we) do. And it works. Almost every day I hear from people on the street: the clerk in the store, the neighbor down the block, the secretary at the church, about how much they love and appreciate the art window.

So what can you do? Get together with a few other artists and put your marvelously creative brains together. Decide what you want to do and figure out a way to do it. It would be nice if we could earn a living doing this. And I think that will eventually happen when the general public sees art as necessary to their lives, as they do in much of Europe. But it will only happen when we make it happen. If people of modest means are willing to spend a thousand dollars on a TV, they can buy art, which is also visually interesting and will last a lot longer! So go out and talk to a stranger about what you do. And talk to friends about what you want to do.


Born 1950 in Chicago, Mary Ellen Croteau received a BFA in sculpture from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1990, and an MFA from Rutgers University/Mason Gross School of the Arts in 1998. She has lectured and exhibited nationally and internationally. Her work has been reviewed in the New York Times and the Village Voice, and appeared on the cover of The Last Taboo: Women and Body Hair (Manchester University Press). She has organized, curated and/or juried numerous exhibitions, including “Attitudes:Good Girls/Bad Women” for The Living Arts Museum in Reykjavik, Iceland and most recently, "Are We There Yet? 40 Years of Feminist Art" at ARC Gallery.

Croteau currently directs and curates a window gallery, ART ON ARMITAGE. You can view the space and find out how to apply for an exhibition at the website.