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Welcome to TheFeministArtProject wiki!

This is a shared document of the National Committee of the Feminist Art Project. ("Wiki" means "quick" in the Hawaiian language.) To add your comments and thoughts, first check to see if the "Log In" prompt appears (above, right). If the prompt is there, log-in with your four-letter password; if the prompt says "Log Out" (above, right), you are already logged in and ready to go. To type into the document at any point, choose the "Edit Page" function (blue box at top of each page), and just type. Alternatively, you can select the "Comments" button above to record your comments on any page or question.

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Arlene Raven's Life Celebration

will take place on Monday, October 16, 2006, at 6 p.m.

at The Great Hall at Cooper Union

7 East 7th Street (between Third and Fourth Avenues)

New York, NY 10003

All are welcome.

NEWS

Monday, October 9

TFAP FLORIDA has its own Wiki - Click here to connect to Florida Region Wiki

Friday, August 25

First version of The Feminist Art Project long (2-page) press release. Click here TFAP press 2006-08-24 to open and view the release as a PDF -- then use your browser's "back" arrow to return to this page. You can use the wiki's "comments" button or "edit page" functions to discuss and/or critique the document.

Friday, August 11

Please post your ideas for Project talking points here.

Friday August 4, 2006

It is with great sadness that we report the passing on August 1st of Dr. Arlene Raven, member of The Feminist Art Project National Committee read more.

August Regional Coordinator updates can be found on the Regional Activities page.

National Committee members may use the blue 'FILES' box (top of page) to download committee meeting minutes.

Discussion Topic for July-August 2006

Long-term strategies for The Feminist Art Project

Each of the five questions, below, written by Judy Chicago and Arelene Raven, is also linked to its own answer page. The discussion will be continued via conference calls.

Message from Judy C and Arlene: As everyone may remember, in the Spring of 2005, Arlene and I -- and then Susan -- began to discuss an initiative that would be aimed at addressing and countering the fact that even now, there is insufficient acknowledgement of the impact upon contemporary art of women's recent cultural production and of the global and historic importance of Feminist art.

In our original mission statement, we said that our intention was "to acknowledge the progress that has been made in relation to women's visual culture while also raising awareness about the historic problem of erasure and to highlight issues about the disagreements, diversity and discourses about art and feminism that have been ongoing during the last thirty-five years." We felt that this was a particularly opportune moment to mount such an initiative because of the imminent opening of the Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum (which brings with it the permanent housing of "The Dinner Party"); Maura and Linda Nochlin's "Global Feminisms" show, Connie Butler's "WACK: Art and the Feminist Revolution" and numerous other events and exhibitions commemorating milestones and/or exploring Feminist art.

Since Rutgers (happily) took on the task of coordinating this initiative, now titled The Feminist Art Project, much has happened and Arlene and I feel strongly that it is time for us to begin a discussion about our overall aims and objectives in this project, also, to set strategic goals. As a first step in doing this, we have formulated FIVE questions that we would like everyone to answer before the end of July. This wiki has been set up for this purpose; Nicole Plett will monitor our responses and build a shared document that we can all use when we have our next conference call. We hope that everyone will take the time to respond to these questions. Judy C and Arlene

Here are the questions. Click the blue word QUESTION link, then select 'Edit Page' to respond. Be sure to hit "SAVE" now and then!

QUESTION 1: What type of contribution does TFAP want to make to today's feminist thinking and discourse about art and society?

QUESTION 2: How does our initiative differ from that of the seventies?

QUESTION 3: Although the seventies efforts resulted in many changes -- particularly an historic change that made it possible for women artists to openly express their experiences as women in their art -- women's work and Feminist art continue to be marginalized or placed into a patrilineal art tradition that makes it difficult -- if not impossible -- to perceive the importance of the art; how can this be changed?

QUESTION 4: What is it that we wish to accomplish? For Arlene and me, the key word should be CHANGE. It is our shared opinion that -- unless we can achieve a change in both the critical reception of and the historic recording of women's cultural production generally and Feminist art specifically, we will have wasted our time. If the committee can agree that we want to achieve a CHANGE, what exactly does that mean? What type of change? How can the energy being stimulated around the country by TFAP be harnessed to make such a change? (and we would add PERMANENT change).

QUESTION 5: Based on our understanding of history, what can we anticipate in terms of mainstream response and how can we overcome whatever institutional and/or critical resistance occurs?