California Institute of the Arts. Feminist Art Program

The Feminist Art Program (FAP) was created by Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California, in 1971. Building on the "radical educational techniques" that she had first tried out in her classes for women in 1970–1971 when she worked at Fresno State, Chicago and Schapiro made the program, the first of its kind, accessible to women only.

Approximately twenty-five young women artists joined the FAP during the program’s opening year. Work on the program’s first class project, “Womanhouse," began on November 8, 1971. The purpose of “Womanhouse" was to “provide a better understanding of women artists by themselves and by the predominately male art community." Together the artists transformed a deserted, seventeen-room, Los Angeles mansion into an exhibit space. Each artist chose a portion of the house in which she had complete freedom to “explore aspects of female experience" through her art.

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