Collection Guide
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Feminist Art Workers records
2017.M.48
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections
Title: Feminist Art Workers records
Creator:
Feminist Art Workers
Creator:
Gaulke, Cheri
Creator:
Klick, Laurel, 1950-
Identifier/Call Number: 2017.M.48
Physical Description:
22.23 Linear Feet
(26 boxes, 1 boxed-roll, 1 roll, 5 flatfile folders. Computer media: 17.67 GB [617 files])
Date (inclusive): 1976-2013, undated
Abstract: The archive consists of papers, photographs, audiovisual and born digital material documenting the performances, exhibitions,
and administrative activities of the Feminist Art Workers.
Physical Location: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the
catalog record for this collection. Click here for the
access policy .
Language of Material: Collection material is in English.
Open for use by qualified researchers, except for Box 17 and Boxed-roll 2**, which are restricted due to fragility. Box 15,
Box 16, and Box 23 are restricted pending conservation. Born digital content will be made available on-site only, through
the digital preservation repository. Born digital content and audiovisual materials are unavailable until reformatted. Contact
reference for reformatting.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Cheri Gaulke and Laurel Klick, Feminist Art Workers. Acquired in 2017.
Arranged in three series:
Series I. Performances and exhibitions, 1977-2013, undated;
Series II. Social gatherings and other activities, 1976-1981, undated;
Series III. Administrative files and promotional materials, 1977-1983, undated.
The Feminist Art Workers were a collaborative feminist performance group created in 1976 by Candace Compton, Laurel Klick,
Nancy Angelo, and Cheri Gaulke. The group formed after teaching together for the Summer Art Program at the Woman's Building
in Los Angeles. Compton left the group shortly after its inception and Vanalyne Green joined in 1978. The Feminist Art Workers
were recognized for their combination of performance art and feminist pedagogy and their emphasis on making art in a non-hierarchical
collaborative way. The group's main period of activity was from 1977 to 1981, although they also had multiple retrospective
projects from 2008 to 2012.
Notable performances include
Heaven or Hell? (1977), first performed at the Chicago lesbian restaurant Mama Peaches, in which forks were attached to four-foot-long poles
and used as banquet props for guests to try to feed themselves (Hell) or work together to feed each other (Heaven);
This Ain't No Heavy Breathing (1978), in which the artists chose random numbers from the phone book and called women to wish them a good day; and
Bills of Rights (1980), in which the artists distributed "dollar bills" printed with information about the salary gap between men and women
and urged recipients to support the Equal Rights Amendment. In later years, the Feminist Art Workers produced a documentary
video for the
Making It Together exhibition at the Bronx Museum of the Arts (2008), created retrospective installations for the Trajector Art Fair in Brussels
(2011) and for the
Doin' It in Public exhibition at the Otis College of Art and Design (2011-2012), and also performed
Heaven or Hell? as part of the latter exhibition.
Sources consulted:
Gaulke, Cheri, and Laurel Klick.
Feminist Art Workers: A History. Los Angeles: Otis College of Art and Design, 2012.
Tain, John. Acquisition approval form for "Feminist Art Workers (active 1977-1981) Archive, 1977-2012," accession no. 2017.M.48,
May 16, 2016.
Feminist Art Workers records, 1976-2013, undated, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2017.M.48.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2017m48
Rachel Poutasse processed the collection in 2019 and 2020 and wrote the finding aid in 2020 under the supervision of Sarah
Mackenzie Wade and Kit Messick. Digital materials were processed by Laura Schroffel in 2019. Digital files require further
processing before access copies can be made available. This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and
Library Services, ST-03-17-0007-17.
Woman's Building records, 1960-2016, undated, Getty Research Institute, Accession no. 2017.M.43.
Sisters of Survival records, 1981-1985, Getty Research Institute, Accession no. 2017.M.47.
One publication has been transferred to the Getty Research Library's general collections. This can be searched in the online
catalog by using the search phrase "Feminist Art Workers Collection."
Scope and Content of Collection
The archive consists primarily of project files for performances and exhibitions by the Feminist Art Workers during their
main period of activity from 1977 to 1981 and their retrospective projects from 2008 to 2012, including papers, press clippings,
photographic documentation, ephemera, and audiovisual and born digital materials. The collection also contains administrative
files, promotional brochures, and pictures of social activities and gatherings from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. The
materials were compiled by Laurel Klick and Cheri Gaulke.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Art, American -- California -- 20th century
Feminism in art -- United States -- 20th century
Performance art -- United States -- 20th century
Women artists -- Archives
Women artists -- United States -- 20th century
Audiocassettes
Black-and-white negatives -- 20th century
Black-and-white prints (photographs) -- 20th century
Born digital
Color negatives -- 20th century
Color slides -- 20th century
Diazotypes (copies)
DVDs
Open reel audiotapes
Photographs, Original
Posters
Printed ephemera
Sound recordings
Video recordings
Woman's Building (Los Angeles, Calif.)