The torchbearers : women and their amateur arts associations in America, 1890-1930
The arts clubs for women that flourished during the Progressive Era played a major role in the emergence of middle-brow culture in America. Although nineteenth-century women were expected to acquire knowledge of the arts sufficient for the amusement and edification of their families, they were nonetheless excluded from professional circles. For women seeking a more active role in cultural life, the voluntary arts associations were a vehicle by which they could expand into the public sphere their domestic support of the arts. The Torchbearers shows that these clubs were more than havens for artistic dilettantes. They were effective advocacy groups for promoting universal access to the fine arts, and they left a vital legacy of cultural programs and institutions
Print Book, English, ©1994
Indiana University Press, Bloomington, ©1994