UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Pioneering art educator and feminist Judy Chicago will sign copies of her most recent book, "Institutional Time: A Critique of Studio Art Education," from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 5, in the HUB-Robeson Galleries’ Art Alley. Chicago will be on campus for the "Judy Chicago Symposium: Planting a Feminist Art Education Archive," April 5 to 6. Through April 27, Art Alley is host to "Out of Here," an exhibition of works by students in a special topics course on Judy Chicago.
Since 2011, Penn State has housed the Judy Chicago Art Education Collection, one of the most important private collections of archival materials on feminist art education. In honor of Chicago’s 75th birthday in 2014, and in celebration of the Penn State School of Visual Arts’ relationship with her, the University has hosted a series of exhibitions, lectures and other events highlighting her work throughout spring 2014. The symposium is the culmination of that series. Registration is still open for the symposium at http://judychicago.arted.psu.edu/news-events/events/symposium/registration/.
Born in 1939 in Chicago, Judy Chicago rose to fame in the 1970s and is best known for her monumental work "The Dinner Party" (1974-79), the breathtaking, triangular table that is a symbolic history of women in western civilization and is now in the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum. She created three major collaborative projects afterwards: the "Birth Project," "Holocaust Project" and "Resolutions: A Stitch in Time." She continues making thought-provoking art in new media today, including her work in glass since 2003.
Jill Fields, editor of "Entering the Picture: Judy Chicago, The Fresno Feminist Art Program, and the Collective Visions of Women Artists," and Jane Gerhard, author of "The Dinner Party: Judy Chicago and the Power of Popular Feminism, 1970-2007," will also sign copies of their books, which will be available for purchase along with Chicago’s "Institutional Time." Fields and Gerhard are symposium presenters.
In addition, the "Judy Chicago at Penn State" exhibition catalogue is on sale ($10) at the Palmer Museum of Art and can be signed at the April 5 event. The catalogue includes essays by and about Judy Chicago in relation to two exhibitions: "Surveying Judy Chicago: Five Decades," held Jan. 21 through May 11 at the Palmer Museum of Art, and "Challenge Yourself: Judy Chicago’s Studio Art Pedagogy," held March 24 through June 13 at The Eberly Family Special Collections Library. The catalogue showcases photographs of many of the works in the exhibitions along with photographs of Judy Chicago at pivotal moments in the past five decades. This publication is dedicated to art educators who endeavor to create participatory, inclusive, empowering feminist spaces of learning for aspiring artists and audiences of art.
For more information on the spring 2014 events celebrating Judy Chicago, go to http://judychicago.arted.psu.edu/judy-chicago-at-penn-state/.