WHYY's Peter Crimmins visited The Galleries at Moore prior to the opening of (Re)FOCUS: Then & Now on Friday, January 26th. The two-part exhibition showcases artists featured in the 1974 FOCUS festival as well as emerging women, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming, and underrepresented artists from Philadelphia's creative community.
Crimmins spoke with artist Wit López, whose work is featured in the Now portion of the exhibition, about their work in the Galleries. Diane Burko and Judith K. Brodsky, who coordianted both the 1974 festival and (Re)FOCUS 2024, also opened up about what inspired the original event.
"We didn’t have the vocabulary then, but we wanted it and so we went ahead and we did it,” Brodsky said in the interview. “It was really my introduction to organized feminism in the visual arts. I was already a feminist – I mean, I don’t think you could be a woman and not be a feminist – but I hadn’t been an activist.”
Photo of Wit López's work in (Re)FOCUS: Then & Now by Emma Lee/WHYY.
