Biennial Collaboration
Every other year, WiVLA’s board selects a theme, and its members form collaborative partnerships of two or three artists, with each partner from a different creative discipline – one literary and one visual, for example. Together they explore the ideas and concepts behind the theme and agree upon a direction for the partnership to take to express their interpretation of the theme. Then each partner, in her own way, creates an individual work. Next, over the course of multiple meetings, the partners discuss each other’s work so that each piece within the partnership evolves together towards a cohesive, unified whole.
Partners find each other in various ways: a speed-dating meeting, gatherings to meet fellow members, and even a few blind dates. Some members found themselves intrigued by women they knew only by name. Others were captivated by new sides of members they already counted as friends. Long-time members paired with brand new members. New members summoned up the courage to work with someone unknown. Many members picked partners they didn’t know well to see where the challenge of the current theme would take them. Members eagerly anticipate the project and enjoy the process. We began the 2026 collaboration by establishing the theme: WILD.
2026 Collaboration
This theme, WILD, speaks to what is untamed, instinctive, and uncontained. It is a space beyond rules and refinement—where emotion, intuition, and raw experience lead. WILD can appear as nature, inner landscapes, memory, rebellion, or transformation. It invites artists to explore freedom, intensity, and the beauty found in disorder, risk, and vulnerability.
WILD may be interpreted literally or abstractly. It can emerge through nature, inner landscapes, personal narratives, fragmented forms, bold gestures, experimental language, or moments of rupture and transformation. Whether physical or psychological, external or internal, WILD reflects forces that resist containment and invite risk, intensity, and freedom.
WiVLA members are encouraged to create work that responds to WILD through expressive imagery, innovative materials, unconventional structures, or powerful storytelling. All interpretations are welcome.
Registered Collaboration Partners
Melody Locke, Denise Bossarte