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THE WOMAN'S BUILDING: HERSTORY

In 1972, artist Judy Chicago, graphic designer Sheila de Bretteville, and art historian Arlene Raven formulated plans for the Feminist Studio workshop. They envisioned an alternative school for women based on a desire to support and develop a female perspective in the arts, encourage creative work reflecting that point of view, and assist in sharing that work with the public. They incorporated as Feminist Studio Workshop, Inc., a non-profit education institution, and published a brochure with $100.00 capital donated by each.

During their search for a building to house the Workshop, artist Edie Gross discovered that a building owned by the California Institute of the Arts (where Chicago, Dr. Bretteville and Raven were teaching at the time) was available. The size and probable operating expenses of this building (which had once been the Chouinard Art Institute) suggested the possibility of a community situation consisting of several women's groups based at the Building who would work cooperatively and share expenses. A number of organizations decided to join the FSW at 743 S. Grandview Street, Los Angeles: Womanspace (the first independent gallery and performance space for women in the arts on the West Coast), Gallery 707 (a commercial gallery devoted to the exhibition of women's art), the L.A. Women's Switchboard (a telephone information service), Sisterhood Bookstore, a feminist theatre group, Grandview cooperative galleries, and a feminist therapist, Susan Kuhner, who rented a professional office. Later, a number of organizations joined (while others left or closed down), including a chapter of NOW, coffee shop (owned and operated by Dorothy Baker who, sadly, died of cancer in 1975), and Womantours, a women's travel agency. This conglomerate became the Woman's Building.

The Woman's Building takes its name and inspiration from the structure and organization created for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Many prominent American women, including Susan B. Anthony and other feminist leaders, were responsible for bringing the need for women's representation in the 1893 World's Fair to the attention of Congress. The Woman's Building, governed by a Board of Lady Managers, was designed by a female architect and housed the creative contributions of women from all over the world. In November, 1973, 80 years later, the doors of the Los Angeles Woman's Building were open to the public for the first time.

With a fully occupied building, our immediate need was an organizational form to administer the building, serve tenants and keep the day-to-day activities running smoothly. The FSW's original plan was an equalized body, called the Board of Lady Managers after the governing organization of the first Woman's Building, composed of representatives of the tenant groups and the community at large. The Feminist Studio Workshop Collective -- and Helen Alm-Roth, Sheila Suzanne Lacy, Deena Metzger and Arlene Raven -- believed that the direction and actual work of shaping and maintaining the Woman's Building would be a shared responsibility of individuals