Lorraine Serena initiated WBB in 1991 with the intention of celebrating and connecting women artists around the world. During an early gathering with artist friends, a small box caught the attention of the group. Evocative of a vessel, womb, tomb, gift, shrine, the box provided a powerful symbol for women.

Women Beyond Borders is about dialogue. It is a gathering together of women so they can identify themselves, which is - speak for themselves. The importance of this action in a global society cannot be overestimated.
Suvan Geer, Artist / Writer

Betty Ann Brown moderated the discussion that included women from various sides of the feminist movement including: Dean Dresser, Cheryl Dullabaun, Cheri Gaulke, Sondra Hale, Rosalie Ortega, Sandra Rowe and Lorraine Serena.

Community building is, above all, an art movement about inclusion.
- Betty Ann Brown, Ph.D., Art Historian, Critic and Curator

WBB boxes were displayed in conjunction with an exhibition of vessels and objects from 5th Century, entitled Pandora: Women in Classical Greece. Both exhibitions illustrated the strong need for solidarity throughout the centuries.

WBB reinforces the fact that we are in great and immediate need of an open and honest communication which moves us toward a spiritually rejuvenated plane of human relationship among the members of the worldwide family of art.

- Sania Papa, Critic and Theorist - Greece

The WBB exhibition opened as a result of the determination of Princess Katya Galitzine and Polina Fedorova, WBB Curator and Artist. As viewers examined the boxes they felt terror and awe at the intense and direct universal expressions.

After seeing boxes from Vietnamese, Cuban and Israeli women, I felt such a great pain in my heart. I understood the cries, tears, and sorrows of the persecuted nations. The boxes open up the worlds, souls and hearts of women for others to understand and to help us to find strength in our future fight with our destiny.

- Helen, student, age 16, St. Petersburg

WBB Curator and Artist Yoni Waite expressed that women in Africa have been subjugated for years as chattel, yet recently many have begun finding their voices and power. Themes encompassed reverence for home and culture, imprisonment of body and soul, and respect for the mystery and magic of nature. WBB was the first exhibition of women’s art to be held at the National Museum of Kenya.

Photo: Lilian Nabulime - My Self, 1995, Uganda

Several of the most prominent Yugoslav sculptors, painters and emerging artists gathered at the opening celebration in Belgrade.

Their creations reflected the depth and poetic approach of each participant in the midst of war. All the press wrote about was the exhibition and it became the talk of the day!

- Jasna Janicijevic, Professor of Culture,
Belgrade University

From a temple in Kathmandu to the Dufferin Mall in Toronto, WBB continually reached out to unique venues and wider audiences. In addition to the participation of Canadian artists, the Toronto School District sponsored hundreds of students from across the city to participate in numerous workshops.

All of these artists, along with their many Canadian and worldwide colleagues, shared a distinguished consciousness of community, creating a genesis of global consciousness that borders, with all their powers, can no longer keep contained.

- Linda Abrahams, Director, Women’s Art Resource Center

The WBB exhibition was the second cultural exchange with North American artists after the blockade.

Summer brought with it to Havana a breathless cultural activity of special relevance in our aesthetic environment and of great resonance at an international level. Cuban artists revealed symbolic issues that defined their tremulous times.

- Magda Gonzalez, Curator and Founder, Wifredo Lam Center, Havana.

Photo: Winsom, WBB Artist, Lorraine Serena, WBB Founder, and Magda Gonzalez, WBB Curator

In the forested hills of Hamamatsu, the Akino Fuku Museum celebrated the opening of WBB’s arrival with formalities, including the resounding atmosphere of women Taiko drummers.
Gallery One Park Tower, Tokyo, hosted the exhibition in the midst of a bustling urban atmosphere. Shoko Tomo and Yoshihiro Ikka, Curators.

Usually social commentary comes from the art critics of a culture, taking years to unfold. However, this is an all-at-once, all together, informal global commentary. This box exhibition has inspired conversations that are so different, so varied, that any issue or all issues arise.

- Penny Paine, Consultant, Educator, WBB Coordinator of UK and Ireland

Photo: Penny Paine & Mayor of Manly

Singaporean artists took a step further to encourage dialogue, by connecting with another person or community, creating collaborative boxes. The first lady of Singapore, Madame Goh Chok Tong led the ceremonial opening.

What it means to be a contemporary woman artist on the cusp of the millennium was the impetus for the Utah artists. In addition, VSA (Very Special Arts) invited more than 6,000+ children with disabilities from 41 states and 83 countries to participate. A selection of Children Beyond Borders exhibition was concurrently displayed. The exhibitions were deemed one of the top five cultural events of the Cultural Olympiad.

The Frist Center for Visual Arts encouraged adjunct projects, including 1,000 teachers and students from the Nashville School District and other various groups. Workshops were held at the Renewal House and Magdalen House, recovery communities for women and their children who are suffering from alcohol, drug abuse and prostitution. The exhibition drew a record 52,000 viewers, the largest turnout to an exhibition in the museum's history.

The publication of The Art of Building Community traces the initiative’s journey and social impact on a local as well as a global level.

2005 WOMEN OF VISION AWARD

Isabella Bird Award, Woman of Vision for the creative approach of building community among women and for the publication: Women Beyond Borders, The Art of Building Community

More than 1,200 fifth graders from Missoula County came to the museum throughout the three-month long exhibition to view the boxes and to discuss women’s issues. While observing the exhibition, the boys and girls collected information, culminating in earnest discussions that gave the students new insights into women.

Missoula, Montana continues to feel the ripple effect of Women Beyond Borders. The influence on the community has been greater than any other exhibition at the Missoula Art Museum.  

Cricket Wingfield

> 2007 The US President’s Committee on Arts and Humanities gave recognition to Women Beyond Borders for its size, scope and cultural impact.

Reflections on the Body was the theme for the WBB exhibition held in conjunction with a weeklong series of events that  took place during National Eating Disorder Awareness Week.

The boxes selected for the exhibition provided an inner space as well as an interface, becoming a metaphor for the body itself in its myriad expressions, as well as a vehicle for introspection and dialogue.

- Anette G. Kubitza, Ph.D., Art History

For the first time ever the Women Beyond Borders organization took to the stage in a theater production that showed from Friday April 26th, 2019 until Sunday June 2nd, 2019. The talented team of Claire Bowman, Karyl Lynn Burns, Lauren Patten and Beverly Ward worked tirelessly with Lorraine Serena to adapt the project to theater.

Over the course of about 85 minutes, the audience was transported to a forest in Upstate New York, a classroom in Rwanda, a boat fleeing Saigon — so many places and experiences that are deeply personal and yet universal. While the actors performed, images of many of the boxes were projected onto a big screen.

– Emily Dodi, VCReporter

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.