Woman's Building records

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Woman's Building records

1970-1992

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw938796dfe-5dbf-49e9-96e7-5a8745391f13

The records of the Woman's Building measure 33.5 linear feet and date from 1970 to 1992. The organization played a key role as an alternative space for women artists energized by the feminist movement in the 1970s. The records document the ways in which feminist theory shaped the Building's founding core mission and goals. During its eighteen year history, the Building served as an education center and a public gallery space for women artists in Los Angeles and southern California; the records reflect both functions of the Building's activities.The Administrative Files series documents the daily operations of the Building, with particular emphasis on management policies, budget planning, history, cooperative relationships with outside art organizations and galleries, special building-wide programs, and relocation planning. Included in this series are the complete minutes from most Building committees from 1974 through closing, including the Board of Directors and the Advisory Council. The General Publicity and Outreach series is particularly complete, containing publicity notices from most events, exhibits, and programs held at the Woman's Building, including brochures, announcements, programs, invitations, press releases, newspaper clippings, and magazine articles.The Woman's Building's educational programs centered on courses offered by the Feminist Studio Workshop and the Extension Program. While the Workshop provided a two-year program for women interested in fully developing their artistic talent, the Extension Program offered a broad range of classes, specifically oriented to working women interested in art and art vocations. The records fully document both programs, focusing on the course development and descriptions, teacher contracts, class evaluations, budget planning, and scholarship programs. Although the Archives does not have the entire slide library, there are files concerning the establishment and administration of the library, as well as a few folders of slides. The Gallery Programs series houses the records of the visual, performing, literary and video arts events held at the Woman's Building. Administrative files detail the daily operation of the gallery spaces. The files in the remaining subseries are primarily arranged by event and contain proposals, announcements, publicity, and artist biographies.The Women's Graphic Center became a profit-making arm of the Woman's Building in 1981 but the typesetting and design equipment had been used by staff and students since 1975. The records in this series focus on the work produced at the Center, including general projects and artist designs and art prints. Many of the design and printing examples were produced for Woman's Building events and programs. The Artist's Works of Art series includes artist books, resumes, correspondence, postcards, and samples of art in the form of sketches, drawings, and prints. There is also material related to Woman's Building projects. Especially noteworthy is the "What is Feminist Art?" project where artists gave their responses in various formats and mediums from text to pieces of artwork.The Printed Materials series contains feminist and art publications not produced by or for the Woman's Building.

33.5 linear feet

Archives of American Art

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 8117296

Archives of American Art

Related Entities

There are 7 Entities related to this resource.

De Bretteville, Sheila Levrant

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qd0srv (person)

Sheila Levrant de Bretteville (born 1940) is an American graphic designer, artist and educator whose work reflects her belief in the importance of feminist principles and user participation in graphic design. In 1990 she became the director of the Yale University Graduate Program in Graphic Design and the first woman to receive tenure at the Yale University School of Art. In 2010 she was named the Caroline M. Street Professor of Graphic Design. de Bretteville holds degrees from Barnard College a...

Raven, Arlene

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6j49gpb (person)

Arlene Raven (Arlene Rubin: July 12, 1944, Baltimore, Maryland – August 1, 2006, Brooklyn, New York) was a feminist art historian, author, critic, educator, and curator. Raven was a co-founder of numerous feminist art organizations in Los Angeles in the 1970s....

Los Angeles Women's Video Center

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63z8wzr (corporateBody)

In 1976, the Los Angeles Women's Video Center was established at the Woman's Building. Founded by Annette Hunt, Candace Compton, Nancy Angelo, and Jerri Allyn, the Center supported the work of, among others, Nancy Buchanan, Cheri Gaulke, Susan Mogul, Suzanne Lacy, Sheila Ruth, Judith Barry, and Vanalyne Green. An impressive 350 videotapes were produced, many of them during the first decade of the Women's Video Center's existence. In addition to teaching, this group organized the production of n...

Women's Graphic Center (Los Angeles, Calif.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6fr75p4 (corporateBody)

In 1973, Sheila de Bretteville founded the Women’s Graphic Center and co-founded the Feminist Studio Workshop (along with Judy Chicago and Arlene Raven), both based at the Woman's Building. The Women's Graphic Center, run by de Bretteville and Helen Alm, became one of the most important features of the Building, and its design program was, in many ways, the core of the Feminist Studio Workshop. The WGC was built on the precepts of de Bretteville's Marxist approach, which treated design as a pub...

Feminist Studio Workshop

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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 st...

Woman's Building (Los Angeles, Calif.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xb31gg (corporateBody)

In 1973, artist Judy Chicago, graphic designer Sheila Levant de Bretteville, and art historian Arlene Raven founded the Feminist Studio Workshop (FSW), one of the first independent schools for women artists. The founders established the workshop as a non-profit alternative education center committed to developing art based on women's experiences. The FSW focused not only on the development of art skills, but also on the development of women's experiences and the incorporation of th...

Chicago, Judy, 1939-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6w48kc8 (person)

Interviewee Judy Chicago (1939- ) is a feminist artist and author who lives and works in Belen, N.M. Interviewer Judith Olch Richards (1947- ) is former executive director of iCI in New York, N.Y. From the description of Oral history interview with Judy Chicago, 2009 Aug. 7-8. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 613316745 Judy Chicago (1939-) is a noted feminist artist, author, and educator. She was born in Chicago as Judy Cohen, but later changed her name in protest of the mal...