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Woman's Building records
2017.M.43
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Title: Woman's Building records
Date (inclusive): 1960-2016,
undated
Number: 2017.M.43
Creator/Collector:
Woman's Building
(Los Angeles, Calif.)
Physical Description:
58 Linear Feet
(131 boxes, 15 flatfile folders. Computer media: 719.6 GB
[10,357 files])
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
Business Number: (310) 440-7390
Fax Number: (310) 440-7780
reference@getty.edu
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: The Los Angeles Woman's Building was established in 1973 by artist
Judy Chicago, designer Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, and art historian Arlene Raven. The
Woman's Building was a center for women's art education and a facility for women's groups
and organizations. During its time, the Woman's Building played a key role in the field of
feminist art and arts education. Materials in the collection offer a comprehensive overview
of the activities of the Woman's Building from 1973 to 1991, and document the organization's
post-1991 projects. Materials were collected by Sue Maberry during her time as an artist and
administrator of the Woman's Building and later as Director of Library and Instructional
Technologies at Otis College of Art and Design. Materials consist of printed ephemera and
photographic material related to educational programs, exhibitions, performances, events,
and various collaborative projects. Included are administrative files, artist files,
publications, correspondence, project files, audio and video recordings, and digital files
produced for various projects. The collection also contains material documenting the Doin' It In Public: Feminism and Art
at the Woman's Building
exhibition held at Otis College of Art and Design in 2011-2012.
Request Materials: Request access to the physical materials
described in this inventory through the
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for this collection. Click here for the
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Language: Collection material is in
English.
The Los Angeles Woman's Building was established in 1973 as a center for educational
programs for women artists and a facility for women's groups and organizations. Founded by
artist Judy Chicago, designer Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, and art historian Arlene Raven,
the Woman's Building was the realization of the founders' vision to provide a space where
art and activities of the women's community could intersect. During its time, the Woman's
Building played a key role in the field of feminist art and arts education.
In 1970, Judy Chicago founded the Feminist Art Program (FAP) at California State
University, Fresno. The FAP was the first feminist art education program and drew fifteen
women students within the first year. In 1971, Chicago moved the FAP to the California
Institute of the Arts (CalArts), where she and her colleague and fellow artist Miriam
Schapiro organized the large-scale, site-based, collaborative project Womanhouse. Chicago,
Schapiro, their students, and artists from the local community participated in the project,
creating the first publicly visible work of feminist art. The following year, the FAP
organized and hosted the West Coast Conference of Women Artists. The FAP pioneered the
concept of feminist art education and laid the foundation for the development of feminist
art education principles and concepts.
In 1973, Judy Chicago, Arlene Raven (FAP faculty member), and Sheila Levrant de Bretteville
(founder of the CalArts Women's Design Program) decided to leave CalArts to found the
Feminist Studio Workshop (FSW), an alternative art education school for women artists, which
was one of the first of its kind. The first sessions of the FSW were held in de
Bretteville's living room, but by the fall of 1973, the FSW took residence in the old
Chouinard Art Institute building at 743 South Grandview Boulevard, near Los Angeles'
MacArthur Park. Before the building could be opened to the public, volunteers and students
worked together to renovate it. The building was named after the 1893 Woman's Building (also
known as the Women's Pavilion) at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. The
1893 Woman's Building was designed by architect Sophia Hayden and housed artistic and
cultural works made by women. After the 1893 fair, Hayden's Woman's Building was demolished.
The Los Angeles Woman's Building opened its doors in November 1973.
Chicago, Raven, and de Bretteville believed art should not be separated from the activities
associated with the women's community; they envisioned a space that would be shared with
other women's groups and organizations. Building space not utilized by the FSW was used by
the galleries Womanspace, Grandview, and 707. The building's auditorium was used by the
theater groups L.A. Feminist Theater, Women's Improvisational Theater, and the Women's
Performance Project. Other organizations that took up residence in the Woman's Building
include Womantours, Sisterhood Bookstore, and a local chapter of the National Organization
for Women (NOW).
The Chouinard Building was sold in 1975, and the Woman's Building moved to 1727 Spring
Street in downtown Los Angeles. Again, students and volunteers helped to renovate the
building and create a space in which the Woman's Building would operate until its closing in
1991. Not all of the organizations from the Chouinard Building moved to the new Spring
Street location, but the Woman's Building continued to share a space with various women
organizations. The FSW continued to attract hundreds of women seeking a feminist art
education. Along with the FSW, the Extension Program was created in order to provide classes
for women who could not enroll in the full-time FSW program. Several collaborative projects
and groups emerged from the Woman's Building, including the Feminist Art Workers, Mother
Art, The Waitresses, Sisters of Survival, Ariadne: A Social Art Network, the Lesbian Art
Project, the women's culture magazine
Chrysalis, and the
Woman's Building monthly newsletter
Spinning Off.
In 1981, the FSW closed due to lack of funding, and the Woman's Building restructured
itself to meet the needs of working women. To generate funds, the building opened the
Women's Graphic Center, a design and typesetting business, and rented out studio spaces to
artists. By 1982, all three of the original founders had left the organization and building
leadership was taken up by Cheri Gaulke, Terry Wolverton, and Anne Gauldin. Under their
leadership, the Woman's Building launched the Vesta Awards, an annual awards event and
fundraiser celebrating women's contributions to the arts. The organization also sponsored
several artists projects, including the Madre Tierra Project, Target L.A., the Great
American Lesbian Art Show (GALAS), and the Cross Pollination poster project. During this
time, the Woman's Building continued to provide the space and resources for art exhibitions,
performances, readings, educational workshops, and events. After much financial hardship,
the Woman's Building closed its doors in 1991. Despite its lack of a physical space the
Woman's Building continues to exist as a registered non-profit organization.
Sue Maberry, one of the artists and administrators of the Woman's Building, went on to
become the Director of Library and Instructional Technologies at Otis College of Art and
Design. Maberry's active involvement with the Woman's Building pre- and post-1991
facilitated the creation of the Woman's Building records which Maberry compiled. Maberry
attended the Feminist Studio Workshop from 1976 to 1977, and later joined the Woman's
Building staff. During her time at the Woman's Building, Maberry worked with artists,
including Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, Suzanne Lacy, Leslie Labowitz, and Cheri Gaulke;
she co-founded the anti-nuclear performance art group Sisters of Survival (SOS); worked as
Program Director of the Woman's Graphic Center; helped organize events, write grants and
curate exhibitions. Maberry left the Woman's Building to serve as Program Director at the
Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena from 1987 to 1991, and briefly worked as a Newspaper
Librarian at the
Los Angeles Daily News. In 1992, Maberry was
hired as Director of the Library at Otis where she continues to work today. During her time
at Otis, Maberry has initiated numerous projects, and she was one of the Project Directors
of
Doin' It In Public. Maberry holds a BA in Art from Pitzer
College and a MLS from San Jose State University.
For further details on the Woman's Building timeline click
here .
Sources consulted:
Hale, Sondra, and Terry Wolverton, eds.
From Site to Vision: The
Woman's Building in Contemporary Culture
. Los Angeles: Otis College of Art and
Design, 2011.
Linton, Meg, Sue Maberry, and Elizabeth Pulsinelli, eds.
Doin' It In
Public: Feminism and Art at the Woman's Building
. Los Angeles: Otis College of Art
and Design, 2011.
Maberry, Sue. "Woman's Building History: Sue Maberry (from Otis College)." Produced by Otis
College of Art and Design for the exhibition
Doin' It In Public:
Feminism and Art at the Woman's Building
, March 19, 2012. Video, 9:49.
https://youtu.be/82i0BG40TSA.
Tain, John. Acquisition Approval Form for "Woman's Building records, 1973-1991," accession
no. 2017.M.43, May 11, 2017.
The Woman's Building. "Timeline." 2016. https://thewomansbuilding.org/timeline.html
Open for use by qualified researchers. Born digital content and audiovisual materials are
unavailable until reformatted. Contact reference for reformatting.
Contact
Library Reproductions and
Permissions
.
Woman's Building records, 1960-2016, undated, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles,
Accession no. 2017.M.43
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2017m43
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Sue Maberry. Acquired in 2017.
Jasmine Larkin processed the collection and wrote the finding aid in 2019 under the
supervision of Kit Messick.
Samantha Ceja processed and described Series II. Photographs in 2019 under the supervision
of Kit Messick and Jasmine Larkin.
Digital materials were processed by Laura Schroffel in 2019. 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.
Feminist Art Workers records, 1977-2012, Getty Research Institute, Accession no. 2017.M.48
L.A. Artists for Survival records relating to Target L.A., 1981-1984, Getty Research
Institute, Accession no. 2017.M.46
Maria Karras collection of Woman's Building papers and photographs, 1973-1980, Getty
Research Institute, Accession no. 2018.M.6
Mother Art records, 1973-2016, Getty Research Institute, Accession no. 2017.M.60
Sisters of Survival records, 1981-1985, Getty Research Institute, Accession no.
2017.M.47
Waitresses records, 1971-2015, undated, Getty Research Institute, Accession no.
2017.M.45
Doin' It in Public : Feminism and Art at the Woman's
Building
(1973-1991): oral history interviews, 2008-2011, Getty Research
Institute, Accession no. IA40011
Getty Research Institute Public Event Records and Recordings, 1998-2020. Part Five:
"Without Imagination There Is No Will: The Woman's Building next hit Tapes," hosted by Meg
Cranston, May 21, 2008, Getty Research Institute, Accession no. IA40002
Several publications have been transferred to the Getty Research Library's general
collections. These can be searched in the online catalog under the search phrase "Woman's
Building Collection."
Scope and Content of Collection
The records of the Woman's Building document the activities of the Los Angeles Woman's
Building during its years of active operation from 1973 to 1991, as well as the years
following the closing of the physical building from 1992 to 2016. The records also document
the 2011-2012 Otis College of Art and Design exhibition
Doin' It In
Public: Feminism and Art at the Woman's Building
. Collection materials were
compiled by Sue Maberry during her time as an artist and administrator of the Woman's
Building and later as Director of Library and Instructional Technologies at Otis College of
Art and Design. The records reflect the influential role the Woman's Building played in the
field of feminist art and women's arts education; the building served as a vital center for
women artists and the national feminist movement during the 1970s and 1980s.
The records mainly consist of printed ephemera and photographic materials created by the
Woman's Building and its participants documenting events, programs, and activities hosted
at, and sponsored by, the Woman's Building. To a lesser extent, the records consist of
administrative files and artist files documenting projects and activities that took place in
the later years of the Woman's Building history, including the years after the physical
building closed. A small portion of the records contain publications and
Doin' It In Public exhibition materials. The records of the
Woman's Building date from 1960 to 2016, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1974 to
2011.
Arranged in six series:
Series I. Printed ephemera and
promotional material, 1975-1992, undated;
Series II. Photographs, 1960-1991,
undated;
Series III. Administrative files,
1974-2016, undated;
Series IV. Artist files, 1974-2015,
undated;
Series V. Publications, 1971-2007,
undated;
Series VI. Doin'
It In Public: Feminism and Art at the Woman's Building exhibition materials,
1974-2015, undated.
Woman's Building (Los Angeles,
Calif.)
Otis College of Art and Design
Feminist Studio
Workshop
Women's Graphic Center (Los
Angeles, Calif.)
World's Columbian Exposition (1893 : Chicago, Ill.)
Art, American -- California -- 20th century
Feminism in art -- United States -- 20th century
Nonprofit organizations -- California -- Los Angeles
Women artists -- Archives
Women artists -- California -- Los Angeles
Women artists -- United States -- 20th century
Audiocassettes
Black-and-white prints (photographs)
Born digital
Color slides
DVDs
Floppy disks
Photographs, Original
Printed ephemera
Sound recordings
Videocassettes
Video recordings
Black-and-white negatives
Chromogenic color prints
Color negatives
Color transparencies
Gelatin silver prints
Woman's Building
(Los Angeles, Calif.)
Maberry,
Sue
Chicago, Judy, 1939-
Raven, Arlene
De Bretteville, Sheila
Levrant
Otis College of Art and
Design