Feminist Studio Workshop

The Feminist Studio Workshop was founded in Los Angeles in 1973 by Judy Chicago, Arlene Raven, and Sheila Levrant de Bretteville as a two-year feminist art program. Women from the program were instrumental in finding and creating the Woman's Building, the first independent center to showcase women's art and culture. Disillusioned with the male-dominated atmosphere at CalArts and desiring their own space, the faculty modeled their classes on a non-hierarchical structure and focused on training students in less traditional art forms such as performance art and graphic design. Chicago left the Feminist Studio Workshop in 1974 to work on The Dinner Party, and by the end of the decade, Raven and de Bretteville had left as well and the program was taken over by former students. However, enrollment in the Feminist Studio Workshop declined as the political climate changed and public funding decreased. The program closed in 1981, although the Woman's Building itself remained open until 1991.