N.D. Women Put 'Art Bras' on Display

Edit [Moderator]: Moved from Human Interest Stories to Art.

Link : http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041105/ap_on_fe_st/bra_art&e=4

WILLISTON, N.D. - Bras are out of the closet here, and women have turned them into art. Sixteen "art bras" are on display through Sunday at the James Memorial Visual Art Center near downtown. The bras are embellished with everything from shiny black beads to Scrabble letters.



"We got a charge out of each and every one of them," said Alma Ritter, of Williston, who took in the display this week.


Ritter remembers the time when a woman's "unmentionables" were modestly hung to dry on an inside clothesline, out of sight. Times have changed.


Now, Ritter said, any way to raise awareness of women's health and the importance of an annual breast exam is good.


The show is sponsored by the Dakota Prairie Quilt Guild in Williston. The guild bought an assortment of bras on clearance and invited its 70 members to turn them into art.


Kathy Johnson, a quilting instructor who works at Sylvia's Quilt and Sew in Williston, said she got the idea for a local show from a national art bra tour and a calendar in a quilting magazine.


Johnson said four members of the quilt guild are breast cancer survivors.


"We're aware of it in our group," she said.


For $1, a person can vote for a favorite art bra. The money goes to the Nelson Family Cancer Center in Williston.


One woman decked the cups of a bra with glittery knitted breast warmers, adding bits of fur and leather. She called it "A Montana Girl's Winter Bra."


Another decorated one cup with the word "boo" and the other with the word "bees."


One woman covered the cups in concentric circles to remind women how to conduct their own monthly exams. Another attached a cloth hand to the cup, inviting women to "cop a feel" every month.


Art center director Mary Olson said the show has brought smiles, despite its serious purpose.


"People think it's just as fun as can be," she said. "It's clever."


Johnson said the art bras will be displayed at the shop for the rest of the month. Then, they may go on tour to other quilt shows and to nearby Watford City, when the local hospital brings in the mammogram bus next month.