JAMES LUCAS | DATE 4/20/2011

ARTBOOK | D.A.P. President and Publisher Honored in List of Top 30 Women in the Arts

Sharon Helgason Gallagher, President and Publisher of ARTBOOK | D.A.P. was honored on Saturday, April 16th at a gala at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, along with 29 other women leaders and women artists by ArtTable, the leading American association of professional women in the arts. The event celebrated the 30th anniversary of ArtTable and the organization's annual conference, which took place over the weekend of April 15th at the New York headquarters of Sotheby's. ARTBOOK | D.A.P. partnered with ArtTable to present a pop-up bookstore at Sotheby's featuring a curated selection of books on or by women artists, curators and art historians.

Marion Goodman, Sharon Helgason Gallagher, Margo Machida, RoseLee Goldberg, Thelma Golden and Lisa Phillips.

ARTBOOK | D.A.P. congratulates Sharon Helgason Gallagher and her fellow honorees on this accomplishment.

Fellow honorees include Marieluise Hessel Artzt, Kathan Brown, Mary Schmidt Campbell, Anita Contini, Alice Denney, Helen W. Drutt-English, Elizabeth Easton, RoseLee Goldberg, Thelma Golden, Marian Goodman, Kathy Halbreich, Lila Harnett, Ann Sutherland Harris, Alanna Heiss, Mary Jane Jacob, Leslie King-Hammond, Ruby Lerner, Susana Torruella Leval, Barbara Luderowski, Margo Machida, Ann Philbin, Lisa Phillips, Joan Rosenbaum, Linda Shearer, Roberta Smith, Susan Sollins, Susan Fisher Sterling, Marion Boulton Stroud, Paula Wallace.

The 30th Anniversary honorees were each awarded a work by renowned conceptual artist Jenny Holzer, created in honor of ArtTable's three decades of advancing women's leadership in the visual arts.

Sharon Helgason Gallagher with family.

Sharon Helgason Gallagher founded D.A.P. / Distributed Art Publishers in 1990 with the mission of getting exceptional art books from significant international imprints into the hands of North American readers. The company has since distributed more than 12,000 titles. In 1994, Gallagher launched the first version of ARTBOOK.COM, which has since grown to become the best, and most lively, site on the web dedicated to books on art, photography, architecture, design and visual culture. Over the last 20 years, the company has expanded its activities to include publishing, museum and international co-publishing, publicity and promotion, event management, retail partnerships, online services, and curated pop up stores. In the winter of 2011, ARTBOOK | D.A.P. opened ARTBOOK @ Paper Chase, Los Angeles, a west coast showroom and event space; and in the spring of 2011, the company's digital publishing wing, ARTBOOK | DIGITAL, launched the company's first illustrated ebooks.

After 20 years of doing business as D.A.P., Gallagher has, in 2011 brought all of the company's ever-expanding activities together under the ARTBOOK name, with ARTBOOK | D.A.P. continuing on as the new name for the extraordinary distribution list of museum publishing programs and independent presses that the company remains deeply honored to represent.

ARTBOOK Pop-Up Bookstore at ArtTable conference hosted by Sotheby's.

ArtTable was founded in 1980 by a group of professional women in the visual arts to foster greater support, recognition and opportunities among their peers. As Founding President Lila Harnett explains, "Information was exchanged, and we became a mutually helpful society with a mission to promote the interests of professional women in the arts." Over the years, the organization steadily expanded from an informal group into a professional network of more than 1,500 women throughout the country with membership centers in Boston, Los Angeles, Houston, New York, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Seattle, and Washington D.C., with growing centers in Chicago, Atlanta, Miami and New Orleans.

ArtTable members live, work and participate throughout the country but its programs are generally planned in cities with a larger number of members. The staff and leadership of the organization are dedicated to planning ArtTable programs in conjunction with major art world events, conferences and fairs. As the organization celebrates its 30th Anniversary this month, the expanding membership is inclusive of women in all stages of their careers who exemplify leadership in the administration, business, finance, management, promotion, scholarship and stewardship of the visual arts.

ArtTable's ongoing outreach programs include: the Summer Mentored Internship for Diversity in the Visual Arts Professions, intended to help young women of diverse backgrounds enter the field of the visual arts; the Career Development Roundtables, developed to mentor students and emerging professionals as they enter the field; the Oral History project, created to document the significant impact and on-going contributions of professional women in the visual arts; and our public programs, intended to provide a forum for discourse about current topics in the arts relevant to both our members and the art world at-large.

Each year ArtTable honors a leader in the field with the Distinguished Service to the Visual Arts Award at the Annual Award Ceremony and Benefit Luncheon in New York City. Past Honorees include: Kitty Carlisle Hart, Agnes Gund, Emily Rauh Pulitzer, Dianne Pilgrim, Joan Mondale, Stephanie French, Lucy Lippard, Marcia Tucker, Paula Cooper, Iris Cantor, Linda Nochlin, Elizabeth Baker, Elizabeth Sackler, Emily Rafferty, Vishakha Desai and Toby Devan Lewis.