The Woman's Building Organizational Milestones
This page is part of a timeline being developed by the current Board of Directors of the Woman's Building. It will be periodically updated as the timeline progresses.
1970
- Judy Chicago founds Feminist Art Program at Fresno State College
- Women artists protest the "Art and Technology" exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (which included no women artists)
- Founding of Los Angeles Council of Women Artists 1971
- Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro found Feminist Art Program at CalArts
- Sheila de Bretteville founds Women's Design Program at CalArts
- Creation of Womanhouse, collaborative installation by students in the CalArts Feminist Art Program 1972
- Womanhouse exhibited to the public
- West Coast Conference of Women Artists hosted by Feminist Art Program and West-East Bag
- Women's Caucus for Art founded at College Art Association annual convention
- Womanspace Gallery opens 1973
- Feminist Studio Workshop (FSW) founded by Judy Chicago, Sheila de Bretteville, and Arlene Raven
- FSW students and volunteers, renovate the historic Chouinard Art Institute
- The Woman's Building opens its doors at 743 S. Grandview on 11/28/73
1974
- Womanspace closes
- Chicago leaves FSW staff to work on The Dinner Party
1975
- Chouinard building sold
- Series of five conferences: "Women in Design," "Women's Words," "Personal and Public Rituals: Women in Performance Art," "The Feminist Eye" film and video conference, and "Lady Finger/Mother Earth" women in ceramics conference.
- FSW students renovate Spring Street building
- Building Women concert raises funds for renovation, features Lily Tomlin, Meg Christian, Holly Near, Margi Adam, Cris Williamson, New Miss Alice Stone Ladies Society orchestra
1976
- Women Against Violence Against Women (WAVAW) founded
- Feminist Art Workers performance group founded by Nancy Angelo, Candace Compton, Cheri Gaulke, Vanalyne Green and Laurel Klick
- Mother Art performance group founded by Jan Cook, Gloria Hadjuk, Christie Kruse, Suzanne Siegel, and Laura Silagi 1977
- Lesbian Art Project founded by Arlene Raven, with Terry Wolverton, Nancy Fried, Kathleen Berg, Donna Reyna, Maya Sterling, and Sharon Immergluck
- Ariadne: A Social Art Network founded by Suzanne Lacy and Leslie Labowitz
- The Store, a thrift store created by artist Nancy Fried, opens
- Chrysalis: a magazine of women's culture begins publication
1978
- WB receives CETA IV grant to hire and train staff
- Publication of Spinning Off begins
- The Waitresses performance group founded by Jerri Allyn, Anne Gauldin and Denise Yarfitz
- WB celebrates 5th anniversary, raises Naked Lady, sculpture by Kate Millett, to the roof of the building
1979
- Incest Awareness Project begins, a collaboration between Ariadne: A Social Art Network and the Women's Resources Program of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center
- Judy Chicago's collaborative project, The Dinner Party, opens at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art 1980
-Nancy Angelo's multi-system interactive video project, 'Equal Time in Equal Space," opens at the Woman's Building
- The Great American Lesbian Art Show (GALAS), a collaboration between the Woman's Building and the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center, opens in Los Angeles and throughout the U.S.
1981
- Feminist Studio Workshop closes
- Spinning Off ceases publication
- WGC Typesetting and Design opens as a profit-making arm of the WB
- WB begins rental of artists studio space
1982
- Vesta Awards honoring women's contribution to the arts are founded
- Woman's Building adopts Affirmative Action policy for Board, staff, and exhibiting artists
- Sisters of Survival performance group founded by Jerri Allyn, Nancy Angelo, Anne Gauldin, Cheri Gaulke and Sue Maberry
- Woman's Building sponsors broadside project for Chicana artists, "Madre Tierra," coordinated by Linda Vallejo
1983
- WB celebrates 10th anniversary and publishes The First Decade
- Women's Graphic Center Commission Project, "Private Conversations, Public Announcements," posters exhibited at Los Angeles City Hall
- Arlene Raven curates "At Home" at the Long Beach Museum of Art
- Cheri Gaulke curates performance art series, "At Home at the Woman's Building"
1985
- Woman's Building produces "Putting Our Hands to Other Labor," documentary video about the womenÕs art movement in Southern California.
1986
- Women's Graphic Center Commission Project, "Cross Pollination," posters exhibited at Los Angeles City Hall
1987
- Betty Ann Brown hosts an "Art Tour of Santa Fe" for WB donors.
- Woman's Building commissions artists to produce original videotapes and airs them on a monthly public access cable program, "The Woman's Building Presents"
1988
- Woman's Building organizes conference, "The Way We Look, The Way We See: Art Criticism for Women in the 90s," co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Women at UCLA, Astro Artz/High Performance and the Wight Art Gallery.
- WB celebrates 15th anniversary, publishes Fifteen Years and Growing and produces "Sweet 15" video; Eighteen artists create original "birthday cakes" to be exhibited and auctioned at the WB.
- WB publishes literary anthology, Women For All Seasons, edited by Wanda Coleman and Joanne Leedom-Ackerman
1989
- Mary Jane Jacob hosts an "Art Tour of Chicago" for WB donors.
1991
- Woman's Building closes.
Comments or questions: info@womansbuilding.org
Copyright. 1999-2010. This site was originally created by Ruth Ann Anderson, Elizabeth Canelake
and Sue Maberry. Additional contributions by Susan Silton and Terry Wolverton.