The Judy Chicago collections at Penn State are marked by their focus on the pedagogical elements of Judy Chicago’s work. Below are the introduction, which is authored by Judy Chicago, and a table of contents of the encounters and lesson plans found in the Dinner Party Curriculum Project. Additionally, there are samples of graphic panels that take viewers on a tour of the At Home Project with Judy Chicago’s student, named James. Finally, there are images of Judy Chicago working with students at her Collaborative Art Making Workshop in New Mexico in 1994. All of these items are a part of the Judy Chicago art education collection, 1970-2011.
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Collaboration
The Judy Chicago Portal bridges Judy Chicago collections housed in three institutions: Penn State University, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America. Bringing together a public university library, a private institutional library, and a museum allows—in this rare collaboration—for the potential of each repository to consider and embrace new audiences and their collective interests in Judy Chicago’s oeuvre and overall impact.
National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA)
The National Museum of Women in the Arts is developing the definitive visual archive of artist, author, educator and feminist Judy Chicago. Covering the span of her career, this unique visual archive will document Chicago’s creative life.
Dinner Party slide set, China-Painted Plates, 1979.
So You Want to be a China Painter: a short explanation of china painting processes and materials by Judy Chicago.
The Dinner Party: Judy Chicago, 1984 [announcement].
The Dinner Party, Musee d'art contemporain, 1982 [announcement]
Los Angeles Celebrates The Dinner Party, 1979.
The Dinner Party documentation panel 2, 1979.
The Dinner Party documentation panel 3, 1979.
The Dinner Party documentation panel 4, 1979.
Judy Chicago painting in her studio (D), c. 1975.
Judy Chicago's 39th birthday dinner in The Dinner Party studio, 1978.
Visit the collection: https://nmwa.org/learn/library-archives/archives-women-artists/manuscripts/judy-chicago-visual-archive-finding-aid
Schlesinger Library, Harvard
The Judy Chicago Papers, 1947-2004, at Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, includes personal and professional correspondence, resumes, writings, drafts, research notes, journals, interviews, questionnaires, gallery catalogs and announcements, clippings, photographs, etc., relating to Chicago's personal and professional lives. Related collections include Judy Chicago Audiotapes and Judy Chicago Videotapes. This collection was given to the library by Chicago. The Schlesinger Library specializes in resources for research on the history of women in America.
Catalog, exhibition, St. Paul, MN, 1975
Primary Structures exhibition catalog, 1965
Chicago in her studio, 1966
Pasadena Lifesavers, 1970
Letter from Chicago to CalArts, 1971
Chicago and students at Feminist Stuio Workshop, ca. 1973
Page from The Dinner Party Sampler Book, ca. 1975
Volunteer brochure, The Dinner Party, ca. 1977
The Dinner Party slide set, 1979
Fan letter to Chicago, 1979
Visit the Collection: https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/schlesinger-library/collection/judy-chicago
Penn State University
The Eberly Family Special Collections Library is home to the Judy Chicago art education collection, 1970-2011. The collection is comprised of art, textual, and audio-visual, material related to Judy Chicago’s art and work as a feminist pedagogue, which includes material created by Judy Chicago, as well as her students and her non-profit foundation, Through the Flower.
Penn State’s Art Education program hosts the Judy Chicago Art Education Collection, which is an online portal that allows visitors to engage with Judy Chicago’s Participatory Art Pedagogy and The Dinner Party Curriculum. The collection also includes a dialogue portal that facilitates an online conversation about Chicago’s work and feminist art pedagogy.
The Dinner Party Curriculum Project Introduction 1
The Dinner Party Curriculum Project Introduction 2
The Dinner Party Curriculum Project Introduction 3
The Dinner Party Curriculum Project Encounters & Lesson Plans Table of Contents 1
The Dinner Party Curriculum Project Encounters & Lesson Plans Table of Contents 2
At Home Graphic Panel 1
At Home Graphic Panel 2
At Home Graphic Panel 3
Chicago & Students 1
Chicago & Students 2
Visit the Collection: https://resources.libraries.psu.edu/findingaids/9028.htm
About Judy Chicago
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 male social dominance reflected by traditional naming practices. Chicago received her bachelor of art degree in 1962 and her master of art degree in 1964, both from the University of California, Los Angeles. She has also been granted five honorary doctoral degrees, three in fine arts and two in humane letters. She currently resides in Belen, New Mexico.
Chicago pioneered a feminist approach to art and art education at California State University, Fresno, in the early 1970s.
She then brought her program to Cal-Arts, where she team-taught with Miriam Schapiro, producing with their students the ground-breaking Womanhouse project. In 1974, Chicago turned her attention to the subject of women's history to create her most well-known work, The Dinner Party, which was executed between 1974 and 1979 with the participation of hundreds of volunteers. Other artwork Chicago produced over the next several decades includes: Birth Project; PowerPlay; The Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light; Resolutions: A Stitch in Time; If Women Ruled the World; and Judy Chicago Tapestries Woven by Audrey Cowan.
Future
As the project grows, our endeavors will highlight the impact of Judy’s work and feminist practice via art and art education for which she is celebrated and seen as a pioneer. Through a phased-approach, our goal is to provide increased access and pathways online to the majority of Judy Chicago’s collections by showcasing unique collections held in various geographic settings and enabling thematic linking between them. Visitors to the portal will ultimately be able to view a wider selection of materials, explore pedagogical and creative projects, and engage with a larger community of researchers.
- Enhance description and create pathways linking Judy Chicago collections and materials held at different institutions
- Establish a travel grants program that would allow researchers to travel between the collaborative institutions to explore the breadth of the Judy Chicago collections
- Exhibit a thematic Judy Chicago digital experience built from coordinating materials across institutions
- Embark on an ambitious digitization effort to make accessible the content spanning the varied impacts of Judy Chicago across decades and disciplines
- Engage and promote community dialogues with feminist values of the digital growing archives and collaborative curricular encounters
Judy Chicago Art Education Award
Through the Flower, a nonprofit art organization, invites artists, scholars and educators to apply for the 2019 Judy Chicago Art Education Award. The award was established in 2011 to support projects that use Judy Chicago materials found at any of the three institutions that will comprise the Judy Chicago Portal. More information about the award.
Independent scholar and teaching artist Rebecca Goldschmidt is the recipient of the 2016 Through the Flower Research Travel Award. Rebecca works in participatory photography programs in southern California and Tijuana, Mexico. She is the founder and coordinator of Las Photos Project, the first Mexican photography mentorship program for young Latinas. This video serves as a proof-of-concept product of such endeavors that will promote and surface the collections and their role in supporting new artists, burgeoning research, and community enthusiasts.
