Woman's Building

Woman's Building

Location	Los Angeles, California, United States
Type	Art center Community center
Genre(s)	Feminist art Contemporary art Women's movement
Opened	November 1973
Closed	1991
Website
http://womansbuilding.org/

The Woman's Building was a non-profit arts and education center located in Los Angeles, California. The Woman's Building focused on feminist art and served as a venue for the women's movement and was spearheaded by artist Judy Chicago, graphic designer Sheila Levrant de Bretteville and art historian Arlene Raven. The center was open from 1973 until 1991. During its existence, the Los Angeles Times called the Woman's Building a "feminist mecca."

"The time: mid-'70s. The place: the Feminist Studio Workshop, later to become the Woman's Building.
The quest: to find themselves, to make art, to change the culture."
- Jan Breslauer, 1992

In 1973, CalArts teachers artist Judy Chicago, graphic designer Sheila Levrant de Bretteville and art historian Arlene Raven were finally finished with trying to offer feminist education in a male-dominated institution like CalArts. That year they quit CalArts and founded the Feminist Studio Workshop (FSW). FSW was one of the first independent art schools for women, and revolved around a workshop environment, allowing women to develop their artistic skills and knowledge outside a traditional educational environment. The vision of FSW was that art should not be separated from activities related to the women's movement. FSW originally met in de Bretteville's home, and in November 1973 the three women began renting a workshop space in a vacant building near MacArthur Park, calling it the Woman's Building after a building from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. FSW sublet space in the building to performance art groups, the Sisterhood Bookstore, the Associated Women's Press, local chapters of the National Organization for Women and the Women's Liberation Union, and three galleries: Womanspace Gallery, Gallery 707, and Grandview.

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