Special appreciation to Jon and Lillian Lovelace for their generous support of Women Beyond Borders from its inception. It is in their honor that we dedicate the Women Beyond Borders site.

I did see the exhibit and the boxes are all fascinating – such a very creative idea! – Lillian Lovelace
 
To all those who made Women Beyond Borders possible, we are forever grateful. Appreciation goes to all the participants including: artists, curators, coordinators, sponsors and directors of institutions, who have spent countless hours organizing unique and compelling exhibitions around the world. This collaborative spirit is at the heart of Women Beyond Borders. Curators and Coordinators

Helping to launch the WBB journey were Nancy Doll, Director Weatherspoon Art Museum UNC and Marla Berns, Director, Fowler Museum UCLA.

Also deeply appreciated are the early participants:
Isabel Barbuzza, Ciel Bergman, Sky Bergman, Rose Bilot, Judy Dater, Beverly Decker, Mary Heebner, Evelyn Jacob, Anna Jud-Hallauer, M. Helsenrott Hochhauser, Alice Hutchins, Saritha Margon, Penny Paine, Elisse Pogofsky-Harris, Tamarind Rossetti-Johnson, Elena Siff, Joan Tanner, Maria Velasco, Victoria Vesna, Judy Weisbart, Seyburn Zorthian.

The Women Beyond Borders website and book would not have been possible without the work provided by the following:
 
Content Provider: Lorraine Serena
Logo Design: Stephania Serena
Book Design: Kim Kavish
Web Design: BitVision Technology Group – Alison Bradley, Declan Blasini
Photography & Video: Wayne McCall, Bill Dewey, Frank Serena, Saritha Margon, Karen Nedivi, and renowned filmmaker Johanna Demetrakas, known for her films entitled “Womenhouse” and “The Dinner Party”, among others.

Lorraine Serena, Founder of Women Beyond Borders and the Board of Directors of Women Beyond Borders has announced that the Art, Design and Architecture Museum of University of California, Santa Barbara will receive the Women Beyond Borders archive and website as part of their permanent art collection. The archive which includes all the artwork produced by women around the world, the numerous quality ephemera and the WBB website will enhance the prestige of the Art, Design and Architecture Museum and will provide an important foundation for teaching, research and exhibition.

Women Beyond Borders is confident that the professional leadership team at the Art, Design and Architecture Museum will support and enhance the women’s art contained in the WBB collection. Lorraine Serena and the Board of Directors of WBB are truly grateful to Dr. Gabriel Ritter, Director, and his staff for seeing the value of supporting women artists and the WBB archive.

In addition, an Endowment Fund in the amount of $106,000.00 pledged over a five-year period will also be provided to ensure support of the WBB archive and website. WBB has been working for several years to find a proper supportive home for the valuable women’s art made from those little boxes.

An Excerpt of UCSB’s Announcement

Lorraine Drammer Serena, B.A., Art, 1963 and M.F.A., Art, 1975, UC Santa Barbara), is the Artistic Director, Founder, and Artist who created Women Beyond Borders (WBB). Encouraged at a young age by her parents, she pursued her love of art and dance throughout her entire life. She has taught many young students to enjoy and appreciate the arts, and several of her students have pursued successful careers in the arts. In 1984, she was named “Art Advocate of the Year” for her work in the arts in Santa Barbara. Recognizing her collaborative exhibition, Women Beyond Borders, she was honored as one of the “21 Leaders in the 21 Century” in 2008, in New York City. Her husband, Frank A. Serena, (B.A., Economics, 1963, UC Santa Barbara), a native of Santa Barbara, is the Founder and Owner of The Serena Company. Frank was also a student athlete, who played Gaucho baseball. After three-years of service in Germany as an officer in the U.S. Army, he pursued a career in real estate development and general contracting in the Santa Barbara area.

Lorraine and Frank met at Santa Barbara High School in 1956 and were married during their senior year at UCSB. One year after graduation, Lorraine and Frank found themselves in Germany. They have two children, David (Ph.D., Computer Science, UC Santa Barbara), and Stephania (M.F.A., 1991, School of Visual Arts, NY), and four grandchildren: Wade Warren, Serena Warren, Liam Serena and Steven Serena. Frank has enthusiastically provided encouragement and support for Lorraine’s art endeavors and especially for the extraordinary WBB project. Early on and recognizing the need for a non-profit vehicle to provide financial support for the WBB and the exhibition, he established a nonprofit corporation, Women Beyond Borders, a California Non-Profit Corporation. Establishing relationships with people in other countries became a natural obsession and lead in part to Lorraine’s desire to collaborate with artists and curators around the world. A major catalyst in her pursuit of public art was her attendance at a workshop in Aspen, Colorado entitled “Making Art as if the World Mattered.” From that workshop, inspiration grew to give women around the world a voice through their art and it became Lorraine’s life work. As the exhibition grew from humble beginnings, countries began expressing interest in participating, and as it traveled, more women artists contributed to the exhibition. Previously, in several venues, where women artists had not been represented in the collections or exhibitions, as a response to the WBB exhibition, these institutions began collecting and exhibiting art created by women. WBB received acclaim and interest at each venue around the world, including in many communities in the United States. A website entitled “womenbeyondborders.org” was also established. It contains extraordinary content about women’s voices, visions, and struggles and continues to be a source of academic research. It is a component of the promised gift to the university. (See attached WBB promised gift document). From Afghanistan to Zambia, women are offered opportunities, through their art, to express themselves to the world. It has become one the most profound websites for women artists. Lorraine Serena’s website, that shows images of her artistic practice, is also closely associated with the WBB website and another component of the promised gift to the university. (See attached Lorraine Serena promised gift document). The theater community was enlightened to WBB when the Rubicon Theatre, in Ventura, California, under the inspirational leadership of Karyl Lynn Burns, created the play entitled, “Women Beyond Borders.” It was originally performed at the Rubicon Theatre in 2019 to rave reviews.

As proud alumni of UC Santa Barbara, Lorraine and Frank, with the support of board members Carol Vernon and Bob Turbin and other past board members, are establishing The Women Beyond Borders Endowed Fund to provide support for the collection and other materials that are promised to the Art, Design, & Architecture Museum at UC Santa Barbara. (See attached WBB Promised Gift document). The Fund is established through a generous gift from Women Beyond Borders, a California non-profit corporation. Lorraine and Frank believe it is fitting to establish an endowment along with the gift of the WBB archive and a sampling of original artwork by Lorraine because they regard the Art, Design & Architecture Museum as one of the shining jewels of the UC Santa Barbara campus. They believe that its leadership team will continue to enlighten the community through its exhibitions and academic work.

Elena Mary Siff
Curator, Board Member, and Co-Founder of Women Beyond Borders
 

There is no hierarchy in this exhibition. We are all creating a piece from the same inexpensive pine box and there is a real sense of us supporting one another. We are women artists of all ages, from all economic backgrounds, and with varying degrees of professional reputation in the “art world.” As this project has grown and the dialogue with other international artists has increased, through the fax and Internet, it is apparent that there is a vital stream which is flowing among us as the exhibition begins its epic voyage. Whatever happens on the way is the essence of Women Beyond Borders.

 – Elena Siff, WBB Artist

Elena Mary Siff and her husband Sam Erenberg were responsible for several of WBB’s International Exhibitions. Elena acted as a contact for the Boxes on the Train Exhibition, the Oaxacan Exhibition, the Cultural Olympiad, and the Australian Exhibition. We at WBB would like to give thanks for their hard work and dedication to the cause since its inception.

My box is titled ‘Narcissism, Me, Me, Me, etc.’ because I live in the dream capital of the world where appearance is paramount, and hope springs eternal.

According to the myth of Pandora, when the winged souls, the 10,000 woes, the spites that plagued mankind, were released by Pandora from the jar, only HOPE was left behind in the jar, and it was delusive HOPE that discouraged the mortals, through her lies, from committing a general suicide.

Because I live in Los Angeles, California, surrounded by vain, foolish, mischievous, idle, and beautiful women, such as Pandora, I felt compelled to turn my box into an anti-feminist statement, that Pandora would have appreciated.

BOXES AT RISK

Lan Huong Thi-Nguyen, Curator
 

Oh, how “underground” we were. I went through all kinds of paperwork to get an “exit visa” from the communist government and an “entry visa” to the USA and brought all the artworks out by hand.

Big Man, my late husband who was dating me for several years at that time, just laughed to see his woman just run transcontinental without thinking of business or any risk. He looked at the boxes and the way I looked at them, like looking at a diamond. The man who was dealing with Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo and all the names of that period, loved my crazy energy and he asked “could you leave Saigon and come to San Francisco to live with me?” He did not get the answer until several years later.

Today, I got your message on the day of your anniversary! It made me look back at that Belle Époque of my life and all that I did. We were so happy, weren’t we! Congratulations for your happy anniversary! Also missing the Big Man who shared 25 years of my life! I wish you know how very emotional it is to watch the video clip you posted today in the giant archive of Women Beyond Borders.
 

It brings me back the memory lane of my career life I had before I had a family. Listening to what I told you that day, the moment we opened the boxes which I smuggled out of that communist country. I was so out of fear of everything because I thought I had to bring the voice of Vietnamese women to the world no matter what when I still could do it.

 

The Power of Life
LE THU-HANG

VIETNAM 1997

The difference between death and life…the immortal still rise from the grave and represent a strong life which is seen everywhere. The freshness of the flowers differs from the quietness of the gray burnt tombstone, the dry and stained pieces of iron and even the spike tunnel where death is always near by.
Flowers still live and rise above all.

 

To Know People Outside
YEN PHUONG NGUYEN THI

VIETNAM 1997

If I shut the lid tight, can anyone know for sure what it is in the box? The outside of the box is decorated attractively as a person intentionally embellishes their appearance to conceal their inner life. The ancient Vietnamese had a saying, “It is easy to know a man from his appearance, but difficult to recognize his thinking.”

SEE MORE VIETNAMESE BOXES

The Art of Building Community

To honor and document women’s voices and visions

To encourage dialogue, collaboration, and community

To inspire creative expression

 
There has been nothing like Women Beyond Borders in the world before. – Karen Wu, WBB Artist
 

The positive response Women Beyond Borders has engendered from audiences and critics around the world significantly enriches education and provides an in-depth understanding of women. Since its inception, Women Beyond Borders has acted as a catalyst for cultural exchange and change worldwide, thus taking a pivotal position at the intersection of contemporary art and today’s increasingly globalized, multicultural, and digitally connected society.

WBB celebrates women worldwide by sharing their untold voices and visions while honoring their spirit of mutual support. This endeavor is more than a collection and basis for exhibitions: it is a catalyst for further communication and collaboration. WBB challenges divisions of class, politics, geography, race, and creed. The original concept continues to be envisioned more as a collective effort than a series of individual projects.

The endeavor that was founded in 1991 by Lorraine Serena and a few artist friends has expanded well beyond it’s humble beginnings as a simple art project with the objective of honoring and connecting women and now reaches across the globe, fostering creative expression and inspiring others in it’s wake. Adjunct projects have cropped up the world over, expanding the scope of the project to many more groups: homeless women, girl scouts, men and boys, nomadic women, entire school districts, widows of the genocide in Rwanda, thousands of children with disabilities via VSArts, DC. and a project involving at risk girls and women in Vietnam. Though the offshoot projects are all unique, the original concepts are championed as a collective movement rather than a series of individual projects.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Over the years, WBB has been acknowledged by anthropologists, theorists, art
historians, curators, dignitaries, sociologists, artists, poets, and many more.
 

– Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson recognized Women Beyond Borders and Lorraine Serena for nearly three decades of the celebration of women worldwide by fostering a greater understanding of their lives and cultures by honoring and documenting women’s voices and visions, and inspiring creative expression. 2019

– Matt LaVere, Mayor of the City of Ventura, California, recognized Women Beyond Borders for its influence on the region and the world in perpetuity, declaring that April 27th, 2019 would be known as Lorraine Serena and Women Beyond Borders Day. 2019

– Dignitaries attending exhibitions have included US President Bill Clinton; Prime Minister of Israel, Shimon Peres; the First Lady of Singapore, Madame Goh Chok Tong; the International Olympic Committee Chairman’s wife, Mrs. Bovijn, and Mrs. Annan the wife of the United Nations Secretary General.

– WBB Artistic Director, Lorraine Serena, was awarded the Women’s eNews International Leadership Award as one of the Leaders of the 21st Century for building peace and connections around the world. 2008

– WBB was acknowledged by the US President’s Committee on Arts and Humanities for the size, scope and impact of the endeavor. 2007

– WBB received the Isabella Bird Award, Women of Vision, for its creative approach to building community among women worldwide and for the book Women Beyond Borders, The Art of Building Community. 2005

– Salt Lake City Magazine deemed WBB one of the top five events of the Cultural Olympiad along with Chihuly and the Pilobolus Dance Theater. 2002

IMPACT

– WBB has increased attendance up to 40% at museums and galleries that it exhibited at and has been an important attraction for fundraising.

– WBB is the first endeavor of its kind in the arts to build community via a worldwide collaboration among women artists.

– WBB crosses over and connects to many disciplines such as sociology, women’s studies, art history, anthropology, psychology, art education, and more

– WBB’s award winning website has become a major educational component internationally for women’s and girl’s organizations, schools, universities, and museums.

REVERBERATIONS

– One of the numerous notable offshoots of WBB: Organizers of the WBB train exhibition were inspired by WBB to collaborate on Danube Streaming, an investigative journey that navigated the Danube river from Vienna to the Black Sea, connecting artists, while addressing ecologic, economic and political issues along the way. 2007

– VSA ARTS, DC (Very Special Arts) sponsored a Children Beyond Borders adjunct project with over 6,000 children with disabilities from 52 countries. A selection of these boxes were displayed along with Women Beyond Borders as an official Cultural Olympiad event held in Salt Lake City. The Children Beyond Borders boxes expressed the young artist’s ideas, dreams, and visions. 2002

– Since the blockade, WBB was Cuba’s second cultural exchange between the US and the Wifredo Lam Center, Havana. 2000

– After having exhibited the WBB collection, the Contemporary Museum of Oaxaca began for the first time to collect women’s art. 1998

– WBB was the first exhibition of women’s art at the National Museum of Kenya. Shortly thereafter, the museum launched the its first exhibition to featuring women artists from Kenya and Uganda. 1997

– WBB Boxes on the Train exhibition was the first of its kind to unite women traveling from Graz, Austria through recently opened borders to St. Petersburg, Russia. 1996