Woman's Building (Los Angeles)

{{Short description|Former non-profit arts and education center in California}} {{use mdy dates|date=June 2025}} {{Infobox venue | name = Woman's Building | image = | image_caption = | nickname = | location = Los Angeles, California, United States | coordinates = {{coord|34.0702|-118.2264|display=it}} | type = Art center<br />Community center | event = Feminist art<br />Contemporary art<br />Women's movement | broke_ground = | built = | opened = November 28, 1973 | renovated = | expanded = | closed = 1991 | demolished = | owner = | former_names = | seating_type = | seating_capacity = | website = http://thewomansbuilding.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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://jwa.org/thisweek/jan/15/2012/womans-building|title=Los Angeles' Woman's Building remembered {{!}} Jewish Women's Archive|website=jwa.org|date=January 15, 2012|access-date=June 26, 2025}}</ref> The center was open from 1973 until 1991.<ref name="AAA">{{cite web | title=Woman's Building records, 1970-1992 | work=Archives of American Art | publisher=Smithsonian Institution | url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/womans-building-records-6347/more#biohist | access-date=15 Aug 2011}}</ref> During its existence, the ''Los Angeles Times'' called the Woman's Building a "feminist mecca."<ref name="LAT1">{{cite news | first=Jan |last=Breslauer | date=January 7, 1992 | title=Woman's Building Lost to a Hitch in 'Herstory' | newspaper=Los Angeles Times | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-01-07-ca-1544-story.html | access-date=15 Aug 2011}}</ref>

==History== thumb|right|Woman's Building, c. 1978

===Feminist Studio Workshop===

{{Quote|The time: mid-'70s. The place: the Feminist Studio Workshop, later to become the Woman's Building. <br /> The quest: to find themselves, to make art, to change the culture.|Jan Breslauer, 1992<ref name="LAT1"/>}}

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).<ref name="LAT1"/> 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.laconservancy.org/locations/womans-building|title=The Woman's Building {{!}} Los Angeles Conservancy|website=www.laconservancy.org|access-date=2016-03-08}}</ref> The vision of FSW was that art should not be separated from activities related to the women's movement. Students were encouraged to collaborate with each other, pooling together their different skills and resources to work on the same art projects.<ref name=":0">{{Citation |title=The Sons and Daughters of Los |date=2020-10-27 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv21hrjb8.9 |work=Power Misses II |pages=89–104 |access-date=2023-05-24 |publisher=John Libbey Publishing|doi=10.2307/j.ctv21hrjb8.9 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> 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,<ref name="LAT1"/> calling it the Woman's Building after a building from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.kcet.org/departures-columns/the-legacy-of-the-womans-building-and-how-it-lives-on|title=The Legacy of the Woman's Building and How it Lives On|website=KCET|date=October 2014 |access-date=2016-03-08}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book|last=Chicago|first=Judy|title=Through the Flower: My Struggle as A Woman Artist|url=https://archive.org/details/throughflowermys0000chic|url-access=registration|year=1975|publisher=Doubleday|location=Garden City, New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/throughflowermys0000chic/page/201 201]–202|isbn=978-0-385-09782-6 }}</ref> The building's goal included having multiple female artists represented in a registry cataloging them. The way they went about adding female artists to the registry is by allowing other female visual artists to submit ten slides of their work, a resume, and information about themselves in order to be considered to be added to the registry.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Woman's Building Records, Feminist Studio Workshop, Center for Feminist Art Historical Studies for project 36002 {{!}} Smithsonian Digital Volunteers |url=https://transcription.si.edu/project/36002 |access-date=2023-05-24 |website=transcription.si.edu}}</ref> The registry they created included the "[artists'] books, resumes, correspondence, postcards, and samples of [their] art in the form of sketches, drawings, and prints" from 1970 to 1992.<ref name="AAA" />

===New building===

In 1975, the building that FSW was renting was sold, and they, along with the other tenants, moved to a former Standard Oil Company building from the 1920s. In the 1940s, the building had been converted into a warehouse, consisting of three floors of open space, making it ideal for FSW's classes and exhibitions.<ref name="AAA"/> The space was the first arts organization to locate itself in downtown Los Angeles, contributing to the revitalization of the area during the 1970s and 1980s.<ref name="LAT1"/> FSW became the main tenant as the previous smaller tenants left, and decided to hire an administrator and create a board of directors to handle the growth of the organization. FSW obtained funding from memberships, tuition, fund-raising and grants.<ref name="AAA"/>

One of Kate Millett's statues that she had originally created for her work ''Naked Ladies'' was installed on top of the building in 1978 to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the art center.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kate Millett's Naked Lady on the Los Angeles Woman's Building Roof |url=https://www.getty.edu/news/kate-milletts-naked-lady-on-the-los-angeles-womans-building-roof |access-date=2023-05-24 |website=www.getty.edu |language=en}}</ref>

Numerous programs and groups formed out of FSW. They offered a two-year program in interdisciplinary arts, such as performing, graphics, video and writing. Deena Metzger started the writing program which included an ongoing writing series. Readers in the series included Meridel LeSueur, Honor Moore, Audre Lorde, and Adrienne Rich. They also hosted large-scale exhibitions, media and social events. From 1976 to 1980 the Feminist Art Workers toured the Midwest with interactive performance and installation artworks. A performance group called the Waitresses formed, who performed in restaurants using the waitress as a metaphor for women in society. The Incest Awareness Project consisted of a series of interactive exhibitions from 1978–79, including a video installation, ''Equal Time and Equal Space'', directed by Nancy Angelo, in which audience members would sit surrounded by video monitors playing videos of incest survivors sharing their experiences. A group piece, ''In Mourning and in Rage'', created by Suzanne Lacy and Leslie Labowitz, featured 10 tall women, wearing 7-foot-tall head extensions, draped in black, standing on the steps of the Los Angeles City Hall. Each woman represented a victim of the Hillside Strangler and a statistic of violence against women. Works such as these are credited with shaping the contemporary performance art scene.<ref name="LAT1"/> Another collective, Mother Art, created installations and performances that addressed the issues their members faced as both mothers and artists.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Liss|first=Andrea|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wQ_EbappjiUC&q=%22mother+art%22+woman's+building&pg=PA2|title=Feminist Art and the Maternal|date=2009|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|isbn=978-0-8166-4622-7|language=en}}</ref>

In 1977, building co-founder Arlene Raven, formed the Lesbian Art Project with students who felt their artwork contained queer themes and content in order to highlight the contributions by lesbian artists.<ref name=":0" />

Artist Sheila Levrant de Bretteville designed a necklace of an eyebolt on a chain, meant to represent "strength without a fist"; members of the FSW in 1978-79 made 500 of these necklaces to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the Woman's Building.<ref name="Woman's Building People">{{cite web|url=http://www.womansbuilding.org/people.htm|title=Woman's Building People|access-date=April 10, 2015|archive-date=January 3, 2002|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020103085725/http://www.womansbuilding.org/people.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://sistersofjam.com/category/hello-sheila/|title=Hello Sheila!}}</ref>

In 1979, artists from the Woman's Building issued a nationwide call for lesbian artists to organize exhibitions of their work as part of the Great American Lesbian Art Show (GALAS).<ref name="WBT">{{cite web | title=Woman's Building Timeline | url=https://www.womansbuilding.org/womans-building-timeline-chicago-leaves-fsw-staff-to-work-on-the-dinner/| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210922230113/https://www.womansbuilding.org/womans-building-timeline-chicago-leaves-fsw-staff-to-work-on-the-dinner/| access-date=2 Feb 2014| archive-date=2021-09-22}}</ref>

===Final decade=== [[File:Women in Design.jpg|thumb|right|Sheila Levrant de Bretteville's poster for the Women in Design conference held at the Woman's Building in 1975. Woman's Building records, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.]] In 1981, the Feminist Studio Workshop closed, due to the diminishing demand for alternative education. With FSW's closure, the programs of the Woman's Building were altered to cater to the needs of working women. The building's hours were reduced and two thirds of it rented to artists for studio space. That year, all three of the founding members left, and former students Terry Wolverton, Sue Maberry and Cheri Gaulke led the organization. They also began the Vesta Awards, an annual fundraiser.<ref name="LAT1"/> The performance group Sisters of Survival, which formed in 1981, exhibited and toured across the United States and Europe to protest nuclear weapon proliferation.<ref>{{Cite journal|language=en|doi=10.5250/fronjwomestud.33.2.0129|jstor = 10.5250/fronjwomestud.33.2.0129|title = ''Doin' It in Public'': Feminism and Art at the Woman's Building|year = 2012|first = Jennie |last=Klein|journal = Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies|volume = 33|issue = 2|pages = 129–136|s2cid=142509762}}</ref> That year, the Woman's Building founded the Women's Graphic Center Typesetting and Design, a for-profit business designed to strengthen their finances and support the artistic endeavors of the Building. They provided phototypesetting, graphic design, production and printing services.

However, in 1988 the Women's Graphic Center closed, and the income for staff salaries disappeared. Wolverton served as sole executive director from 1988 to April 1989 before leaving. Pauli De Witt replaced Wolverton, staying only briefly and failing to rescue the organization financially. After she left, a 13-member board ran the Woman's Building.<ref name="LAT1"/> The Woman's Building never recovered and despite pushes to move to another location,<ref name="LAT1"/> they closed the gallery and performance space in 1991.<ref name="AAA"/> They continued to hold the Vesta Awards, with keynote speaker Lucy Lippard and proceeds going towards an oral history of the organization.<ref name="LAT1"/>

==Legacy==

In 1991, Sandra Golvin, president of the board of directors, donated the Woman's Building records to the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art.<ref name="AAA"/> Other archival collections of materials are at the Getty Research Institute and the ONE Archives, both in Los Angeles.<ref>{{cite archive |first= |last= |item= |type= |date= |series= |file= |box= |collection=Woman's Building records, 1960-2016, undated |repository=The Getty Research Institute Special Collections |institution=The J. Paul Getty Trust |location= |collection-url=https://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2017m43}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8tq64vb/|title=Woman's Building Records|website=www.oac.cdlib.org|access-date=2020-04-01}}</ref>

The Woman's Building and its legacy was the subject of a major exhibition called ''Doin It In Public: Feminism and Art at the Woman's Building'' at the Ben Maltz Gallery at Otis College of Art and Design in 2011/2012.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.artpractical.com/review/from_los_angeles_doin_it_in_public/|title=From Los Angeles: Doin' It In Public: Feminism and Art at the Woman's Building {{!}} Art Practical|last=Magers|first=Susannah|website=Art Practical|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126122212/https://www.artpractical.com/review/from_los_angeles_doin_it_in_public/ |access-date=2016-03-08|archive-date=2021-01-26 }}</ref> The exhibition was part of the Getty initiative, Pacific Standard Time.<ref name="WBH">{{cite web | title=Woman's Bulilding: Doin' It in Public | url=http://www.otis.edu/ben-maltz-gallery/womans-building| access-date=October 23, 2014}}</ref> The exhibition was accompanied by a two-volume catalog, and a website that includes historical information about the Woman's Building.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/16/doin-it-in-public-exhibition_n_1281983.html|title='Doin' It In Public' Exhibition Explores History And Impact Of The Woman's Building (PHOTOS) {{!}} Influential Feminist Exhibition Comes To LA Influential Feminist Exhibition Comes To LA|website=The Huffington Post|date=17 February 2012 |access-date=2016-03-08}}</ref> On June 8, 2018, the L.A. City Council designated the Woman's Building as a Historic Cultural Monument.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.laweekly.com/status-update-the-womans-building-earns-historic-cultural-monument-designation/|title=Status Update: The Woman's Building Earns Historic Cultural Monument Designation|first=Shana Nys |last=Dambrot|date=June 18, 2018|newspaper=L.A. Weekly|access-date=June 26, 2025}}</ref>

==See also== * Women-only space * Women's Graphic Center

==References== '''Notes''' {{Reflist}}

'''Further reading''' *''Doin' It in Public: Feminism and Art at the Woman's Building - A Guide to the Exhibition by Otis College of Art and Design'', by Sue Maberry, Meg Linton, and Terry Wolverton (2012). {{ISBN|978-1-4774-0706-6}}. *''Doin' It in Public: Feminism and Art at the Woman's Building'', Volume II, anthology edited by Meg Linton and Sue Maberry (2012). {{ISBN|978-0-930209-22-3}} *''From Site to Vision: the Woman's Building in Contemporary Culture'', anthology edited by Sondra Hale and Terry Wolverton (2011). {{ISBN|978-0-930209-23-0}}. *''Insurgent Muse: Life and Art at the Woman's Building'', by Terry Wolverton. San Francisco: City Lights Publishers (2002). {{ISBN|0-87286-403-0}}

==External links== *[http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-suzanne-lacy-12940 An interview with Suzanne Lacy] from the Smithsonian Archives of American Art. *[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgXGuanQ-PhX5EfV4FlXT5kEDjMfzbEcV Woman's Building oral history interviews] * [http://collection-politicalgraphics.org/results.php?term=woman%27s+building&module=objects&type=keyword&x=0&y=0 Woman's Building posters in the collection of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180526041611/http://collection-politicalgraphics.org/results.php?term=woman%27s+building&module=objects&type=keyword&x=0&y=0 |date=May 26, 2018 }}

{{Feminist art movement in the United States}} {{Authority control}}

Category:1973 establishments in California Category:1991 disestablishments in California Category:Art museums and galleries disestablished in 1991 Category:Art museums and galleries established in 1973 Category:Arts centers in California Category:Community centers in California Category:Contemporary art galleries in the United States Category:Defunct companies based in Greater Los Angeles Category:Defunct non-profit organizations based in the United States Category:Feminism in California Category:Feminist art organizations in the United States Category:Performance art in Los Angeles Category:University and college arts centers in the United States Category:Women in Los Angeles Category:Women's clubs in the United States Category:Women's culture