Giving Compass' Take:

• Kilmany-Jo Liversage is a South African artist whose work incorporates the stories of women who have been victims of domestic violence.

• How can art amplify social causes? Where are there opportunities for donors and artists to collaborate? 

• Read about how and why to fund impactful art. 

Kilmany-Jo Liversage is a Cape Town-based artist whose work is focused on amplifying the voices of women whose experiences would otherwise be missed by the public.

South Africa has one of the highest rates of femicide in the world, with a woman dying at the hands of an intimate partner every 12 hours, according to the Medical Research Council's Gender and Health Unit. Other reports estimate that three women are killed every day in the country.

One of these women was Nokuphila Kumalo, a 23-year-old sex worker and mother who was murdered by painter and photographer Zwelethu Mthethwa in 2013. Despite a video showing him committing the crime, Mthethwa continued to be celebrated by the art world and his name, which was newsworthy due to his international acclaim and success, was also used in the trial — while Kumalo’s was erased.

Even though political and civil leaders have acknowledged gender-based violence is a problem, justice is often slow, and just like Mthethwa, abusers are often able to continue with their lives exactly as they were. Survivors and victims, meanwhile, are effectively silenced.

Liversage uses her art to make sure we still hear these women's voices in portraiture (Liversage uses the inclusive term “womxn”). Her early work focused on the health and struggles of women and children, while her later work focuses on confronting the general public about inequality.

Read the full article about art lifting up marginalized women by Lerato Mogoatlhe at Global Citizen.