International Women's Day: #bossbabesATX holding special craftHER Market pop-up at LINE Hotel

AUSTIN, Texas - Austin-based non-profit #bossbabesATX is partnering with the Downtown Austin Alliance to host some special events at the LINE Hotel during the weekend of International Women's Day, March 7 and 8.

#bossbabesATX is helping celebrate the reveal of Writing on the Walls, a series of collaborative public art installations and events. A 12-story installation on the walls of the hotel will be done by acclaimed muralist and designer Shepard Fairey along with Canadian artist Sandra Chevrier. 

Downtown Austin Alliance Foundation Executive Director Molly Alexander and artist Sadé Lawson were on Good Day Austin to talk more about Writing on the Walls. 

#bossbabesATX is celebrating its 5th anniversary this year and founder and Executive Director Jane Claire Hervey talked about collaborating with the Downtown Austin Alliance Foundation and taking a small group of craftHER artists to do art demonstrations and other programming.

"We’re super excited and pumped to just be part of the lineup and to be able to participate in the conversation about what it looks like to recognize women’s achievements while also acknowledging there are still disparities that hold women back," Hervey says.

Recognizing women and others is the stated goal of #bossbabesATX. Hervey says the non-profit not only seeks to amplify women but also non-binary creatives, entrepreneurs and leaders through conferences, festivals, workshops and events like the one going on for International Women's Day.

"Our hope with anything that we do our hope this weekend with the International Women’s Day events is that changing the narrative of gender equality within your community is something we can all do," Hervey says.

"We’re hoping to teach people that you can be vocal you can be loud about the things that you care about and if you do that in a way that’s gender equal it truly makes our community a better place to live in," Hervey adds. "That’s what we’re hoping people get out of coming to something super fun and getting to learn about art and express creativity."

On that note, Hervey says the artists that'll be featured in the craftHER pop-up are not only "women who are coming out to showcase their craft (and) share with others (but) they're also leaders in their own particular craft and industries."

Artists that FOX 7 Austin spoke to included Zanny Cox from Zanny Adornments, Catie Lewis who does illustration and fabric painting, Mercedez Rex who does marble dying and Eunhwa Jung with JOWA.

The artists says, for them, #bossbabesATX and craftHER have really helped them.

Cox says, "Just for me and a lot of my friends that are artists we’ve been given so much representation that we may have not had (and) opportunities."

For Rex, she likes the sense of community. "So many of us are working solo and off on our own. At least for me, I need a place to commune and have resources and other women or small business owners to talk about struggles or how we do what we do."

Hervey adds that the pop-up at the LINE Hotel is just another way to continue the movement of #bossbabesATX and that "it's not just about one person succeeding" and that it's important to find a way that "everyone succeeds and be conscious about how our decisions affect others."

Bringing together so many different people who are building community and creating space for other people Hervey says "is a really powerful thing" and she says that it's such "an important, incredibly important part of gender equality and the mission for women supporting women."