Women on the Inside

Women on the Inside shares varying ideas of introspection as well as representations of women supporting one another and navigating institutions established by men. With an emphasis on photography and video, this exhibition invites visitors to reflect on the museum’s expanding photography collection comprised of works by twentieth-century photographers such as Manuel Carrillo and Ruth Orkin, as well as several photographers who studied at Florida International University including Cecilia Arboleda, Velma McDermott, and German Ruiz. These photographers demonstrate a reverence for ephemerality—fleeting moments worthy of documenting, sustaining, and honoring. The varied portraits of women reveal how individual voices remain integral to the creation of a community and furthermore, how community can be cultivated through commonalities among works of seemingly disparate artists. 

Woman on the Inside: Selections from the Collection of the Frost Art Museum is a collaboration between museum staff and students enrolled in the class, History of Medicine through the Arts, taught by Dr. Amilcar Castellano-Sánchez. This course, taught in FIU’s Honors College, examines intersections between science and art. During the 2020-21 academic year, the two-semester course adopted an additional framework of women and community to further drive their inquiries. Museum staff met with students to discuss the making of exhibitions and objects from the museum’s collection. Following these discussions, the museum staff and students narrowed the checklist, selected works, and ultimately created an exhibition more focused around the emotional power of introspection among subjects and as experienced by visitors.  

Banner Caption: Ruth Orkin, New York, 1965, gelatin silver print, 7 ½ x 9 ¼ inches, gift from the Collection of Jeffrey Hugh Newman, FIU 2019.12.12