Contributing author to WEAD Magazine #15: Place Setting
- Laura Donkers
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
I’m excited to announce that my article The Hokianga Community Drawing Project: te ao hurihuri (at the end of the beginning) is in WEAD Magazine #15: Place Setting. WEAD Magazine features essays and artwork from innovative and inspiring social justice and ecoartists and curators from around the world.
Press Release: Women EcoArists Dialog and Susan Leibovitz Steinman announce WEAD Magazine #15: Place Setting
Berkeley, California — Women EcoArists Dialog (WEAD) and Susan Leibovitz Steinman are pleased to announce the publication of WEAD Magazine #15: Place Setting, Tuesday, June 16, 2026, online at weadartists.org/magazine.
Founded in 1996, WEAD was one of the first membership organizations to uplift women and nonbinary artists whose work centers on ecology and social justice. The organization continues to be a leading voice in the international field of ecofeminist and social justice arts. In 2009, WEAD began publishing WEAD Magazine, which serves as an archive of the field, a resource for academics, and an inspiration to artists and scientists. WEAD Magazine #15: Place Setting is edited by the magazine’s creator, Susan Leibovitz Steinman, who was also a founder of WEAD.
Steinman says, “The issue’s title, Place Setting, is our poetic analogy for community-based, site-specific art. Each essay in this issue explores working in a specific community, as a guest or local artist, collaborating with that community to represent its history and culture, goals, and needs.”
Esteemed ecoart educator, sculptor, and social practice artist Andrée Singer Thompson is profiled as this issue’s featured artist. Four central essays were written by artists working within artist-in-residence programs in alternative community settings, including Laura Donkers, Stephanie Garon, Carol Newborg, and Mallery Quetawki. Two other central essays focus on soil, its microbes, and its influence on the artistic practices of author Salma Arastu and co-authors Rhonda Janke and Deanna Pindell.
The issue’s departmental essays include reflections by Bee (Beverly) Naidus and Ruth Wallen on their friendship and its influence on their art practices, a review of Minoosh Zomorodinia’s show Spirit Gleaning by Sharon Siskin, and a profile of Robin Wall Kimmerer by Alexandra Alter.
Featured portfolios are by Kimberly Callas, Amy Feger, Beth Fein, Maru Garcia, Tanja Geis, Alisa Gorshenina, Laura Green, Stacy Levy, Patricia Miranda, Abby Spangel Perry, Joanne Ross, Priscilla Stadler, Mikala Aragón Sterling, Cindee Travis Klement, Jen Urso, Shelley White, and Melanie Zurba.
About WEAD Magazine
WEAD Magazine was created by Women EcoArtists Dialog (WEAD) founder Susan Leibovitz Steinman in 2009. The online magazine is content-driven and publishes on an intermittent annual schedule. It features essays and artwork from international social justice and ecoartists, curators, and historians. Edited to be accessible to readers from all walks of life, it is an archive of the field, a resource for academics, and an inspiration to artists and scientists. Each issue includes a featured artist and six articles by ecoartists or social justice artists who share the philosophical underpinnings, methodology, evolutions, and outcomes of their practices. Issues also include reviews of art shows, artists in conversation, and featured artist portfolios.
Susan Leibovitz Steinman is editor-in-cheif. Donna Brookman, Praba Pilar, and Connie Tell have guest edited. The magazine has featured the groundbreaking artists: Helène Aylon, Claudia Bernardi, Betsy Damon, Agnes Denes, Reiko Goto, Mildred Howard, Suzanne Lacy, Amy Lipton, Mali Wu, Larissa Marangoni, Amalia Mesa-Bains, and Reva Stone.
About Women EcoArtists Dialog
Founded in 1996 by Susan Leibovitz Steinman, Jo Hansen, and Estelle Akamine, Women EcoArtists Dialog (WEAD) focuses on women’s unique perspectives and collaborates internationally to further the field and understanding of ecological and social justice art. Our purpose is to provide information on the ecoart and social justice art fields to artists, curators, writers, art and public art administrators, educators in art and ecology, cross-disciplinary professionals, and the public, and to further the fields of, and the understanding of, environmental and social justice art. WEAD’s online member directory includes more than 600 artists working with themes of ecology and social justice. WEAD produces an annual member exhibition, the annual WEAD Magazine, a monthly Art+ speaker series, quarterly workshops, and two artist-in-residence programs. WEAD also publishes a monthly newsletter featuring leaders in the field, member and community exhibitions, and calls for art. WEAD’s current board includes Co-Chairs Mary Bayard White and Deanna Pindell, Treasurer Bob Stern, Secretary Rhonda Janke, and Directors Christina Bertea, Leah Dalton, Deb Durant, Lauren Elder, Avery Huetter, Sharon Siskin, and Board Ambassador Callan Porter-Romero. For more information, visit weadartists.org.
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