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and presented the public with readings of their own writings, and with performances. (We also invited L.A. artist Barbara Munger, and N.Y. artist Ree Morton to exhibit their work in the adjacent galleries, reflecting the purpose of the building to exhibit women's art on a local and national level.) The process of the group project that the F.S.W. women experienced with the completion of the project -- the magnitude and quality of which surpassed any individual effort -- transformed the 45 women who, two and a half months earlier had come from different parts of the country into a true community. It became a community in which women cared for one another, and supported each other to complete work on a project that reflected their common goals and values, sharing in the most devastating difficulties and exhilirating success. 

The group project is timed so that we begin and end the year with an experience of collaboration. At the beginning of the year its function is to [[strikethrough]] introduce [[/strikethrough]] bring about large scale aspirations for each individual and for the group. Toward the end of the year (after a period of learning skills and doing one's individual work), the group effort provides a closure on the accomplishments of the group throughout the year. Once again, this work is shared with the public. It reunites the group (while at the same time providing space for each individual's work, as is the case in the first group project). The group project also shifts the emphasis from each student's wish to please the teacher, to each woman's responsibility to herself and to the group. The competition among students -- encouraged in traditional education by the measuring of individual achievement only, through exams