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2019 Judy Chicago Art Education Award presented to Penn State graduate student

Chelsea Borgman, a Penn State graduate student in art education, received the 2019 Judy Chicago Art Education Award during a ceremony held Oct. 17 at Harvard University. Credit: Penn State University Libraries / Penn StateCreative Commons

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The 2019 Judy Chicago Art Education Award has been awarded to Chelsea Borgman, a graduate student in Penn State’s Art Education program, for her submission titled “Inside the Dollhouse.” The award was presented to Borgman during a ceremony on Oct. 17, in conjunction with the launch of the Judy Chicago Portal at the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at Harvard University.

Inspired by artist and art educator Judy Chicago’s influential feminist art installation “Womanhouse,” Borgman plans to incorporate 360-degree virtually immersive experiences with the project, which will involve a group of teen girls in constructing a physical dollhouse. Her goal, she said in her award submission essay, is to provide a platform “for girls to create a critical commentary about issues (that) affect their lives,” and to help participants discern “the power of their artistic voice.” 

“I’ve admired Judy Chicago’s work since my AP Art History class,” Borgman said. “I can’t wait to begin exploring the Judy Chicago Art Education Archives with teenage girls, whose perspective and insight will add much to our experience with the collection and help to illuminate Judy Chicago’s feminist vision for a new generation.”

“Judy Chicago plays an influential role in the narrative of feminist art,” said Barbara Dewey, dean of the University Libraries and Scholarly Communications at Penn State. “The Art Education Award offers a tremendous opportunity to focus on how libraries and scholarship can erase the deficit of feminist art and knowledge and preserve this erasure forever.”

The Judy Chicago Art Education Award honors Chicago and her pioneering work as an art educator. The award is open to scholars, artists and educators for a project based on primary research incorporating any of the three archives that collaborated on the development of the Judy Chicago Portal: the Judy Chicago Visual Archive at the Bettye Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center at the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA); Chicago’s paper archives at the Schlesinger Library; and the Judy Chicago Art Education Collection at the Special Collections Library at Penn State. The annual award includes a certificate and a $1,500 prize.

In the spirit of Chicago’s collaborative and participatory approach to making and teaching art, the institutions — a public university library, a private university library and a national museum — have joined together in a rare collaboration to provide scholars with a robust and accessible research experience. The Judy Chicago Portal highlights the impact of Chicago’s work and feminist practice via the art and art education for which she is seen as a forerunner. The Judy Chicago Art Education Award celebrates this collaboration and encourages engagement with the collections as living archives that build upon continued scholarship and teaching to preserve feminist histories and feminist pedagogy.

Applications are now being accepted for the 2020 Judy Chicago Art Education Award. For complete details about the award, visit https://judychicago.arted.psu.edu/award. Past awardees’ projects are available via the Judy Chicago Art Education online archive of award-winning curricula.

Administered by Penn State University Libraries with support from the Penn State School of Visual Arts, the Judy Chicago Art Education Award is made possible by Through the Flower and the generosity of bestselling author Faye Kellerman.

Chelsea Borgman (left), a Penn State graduate student in Art Education, poses with feminist artist and art educator Judy Chicago at the Oct. 17 ceremony where she received the 2019 Judy Chicago Art Education Award. Credit: Penn State University Libraries / Penn StateCreative Commons

Last Updated October 28, 2019

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