Village Works: Photographs by Women in China's Yunnan Province is the first public exhibition outside Yunnan Province, China of pictures created in 1992-93 during a Women's Reproductive Health and Development Program, supported by The Ford Foundation. In an experimental "photovoice" approach to assessing the needs and resources of mountain villages in southwest China, 62 women were given auto-focus, auto-rewind cameras and asked to record one year of their daily life, work and health conditions.   The women selected pictures for public exhibitions in Yunnan and for discussions with local leaders and public health specialists about plans for village improvements. Village Works posits these images not as irreproducible fine art objects, but as vehicles for ideas about visual and cultural representation. They function as catalysts for critical thinking about the goals and methods of international development, and grassroots activism.   The exhibition resources reflect the viewpoints of participants in the women's health program and those of an interdisciplinary study seminar conducted by Wellesley College faculty, students, and staff. Related topics are explored in a wide-range of events--including Wellesley College class sessions, films, panel discussions, and workshops--all of which are open to the public, free of charge, unless otherwise noted. You can enrich this project by posting your responses and by writing messages that will be forwarded to the women photographers in Yunnan.   --Lucy Flint-Gohlke and Corinne Fryhle, Exhibition Organizers.
		Davis Museum and Cultural Center Wellesley College Created: July 28, 1999 Last Modified: August 10, 1999 Expires: August 31, 2000