WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL ART CLUB
The Women's International Art Club was founded in Paris as the Paris International Art Club in 1900 but changed its name in the same year. The club was intended to 'promote contacts between women artists of all nations and to arrange exhibitions of their work'. The first exhibition of the club was held in Paris in 1900 and another was held at the Grafton Galleries in New Bond Street, London in the same year, and was followed by a second show at the same gallery in March and April 1901. The early annual exhibitions were held at the Grafton Galleries, later at the Goupil Gallery and then the galleries of the Royal Society of British Artists. The club had a limit of 150 members and initially only members of the club could participate in the exhibitions but from 1921, non-members could exhibit one picture for a fee. These exhibitions helped to make up for the lack of opportunity for women to exhibit at mainstream venues such as the Royal Academy. The membership of the club was international, and there were sections in France, Greece, Holland, Italy and the United States and some smaller exhibitions were also held in other parts of Britain and overseas until the club dissolved in 1976 but did hold a further exhibition at Greenwich in 1977. Members of the club included Elisabeth Frink, Elinor Bellingham-Smith and Orovida Camille Pissarro.