Feminist Art Workers records, 1976-2013, undated

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Summary

Title:
Feminist Art Workers records
Dates:
1976-2013, undated
Creators:
Feminist Art Workers, Gaulke, Cheri, and Klick, Laurel, 1950-
Abstract:
The archive consists of papers, photographs, audiovisual and born digital material documenting the performances, exhibitions, and administrative activities of the Feminist Art Workers.
Extent:
22.45 Linear Feet (27 boxes, 1 boxed-roll, 1 roll, 5 flatfile folders. Computer media: 17.67 GB [617 files])
Language:
Collection material is in English.
Preferred citation:

Feminist Art Workers records, 1976-2013, undated, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2017.M.48.

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2017m48

Background

Scope and content:

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.

Biographical / historical:

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.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Cheri Gaulke and Laurel Klick, Feminist Art Workers. Acquired in 2017.
Processing information:

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.

Arrangement:

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, 1977-2012, undated.

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.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Rachel Poutasse
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2025-08-28 07:49:17 -0700 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

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.

Terms of access:

Contact Library Reproductions and Permissions.

Preferred citation:

Feminist Art Workers records, 1976-2013, undated, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2017.M.48.

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2017m48

Location of this collection:
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles, CA 90049-1688, US
Contact:
(310) 440-7390
Website