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This newsletter inaugurates several new features: the President’s Box in which Judy Kovler will share Through the Flower news, and reports by Marilyn Stewart and Karen Keifer-Boyd. As some of you may remember, Marilyn spearheaded The Dinner Party Curriculum Project and is now the director of the annual Dinner Party Institute at Kutztown University, where she is a faculty member. Karen teaches at Penn State University and is the coordinator of the Judy Chicago Art Education Archive there. We thought that our supporters would be interested in updated reports about the exciting activities of our institutional partners. 
Elizabeth Sackler and Gloria Steinem at the First Awards ceremony As for me, I continue to be way too busy, not that I am complaining because it is thrilling that there is so much interest in my work. In the last newsletter, I mentioned that I had designed the awards for the Sackler Center First Awards, which were presented to fifteen “firsties,” as Toni Morrison described herself and the other distinguished women who were given the award as ‘firsts’ in their respective fields. Elizabeth Sackler and Gloria Steinem officiated at what was an incredible evening where—as one writer put it—"estrogen ruled." 
Toni Morrison It was extremely moving to hear the comments of these extraordinary women, each fighting for a place in the sun in her own field. Though their disciplines were different, their stories were so similar in that each one had to struggle with entrenched bureaucracies, antiquated attitudes and of course, good old fashioned sexism. One of the highlights for me was touring The Dinner Party with Johnnetta Cole (presently the director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art) who I met some years ago when we both received honorary doctorate degrees from Smith College. When we encountered each other again at the Brooklyn Museum, she admitted that she had never actually seen The Dinner Party and it was my pleasure to introduce her to it. 
Judy tours The Dinner Party with Johnetta Cole In July, ReViewing PowerPlay opened at the David Richard Gallery in Santa Fe. This series—which examines the gender construct of masculinity—dates from the early 1980's and has been rarely seen. The catalog essay written by Dr. Jonathan Katz, renowned art historian and leading proponent of queer theory, provides a context for PowerPlay that didn't exist when I created it. As Jonathan states: “Judy Chicago had lousy timing when she first exhibited (this) monumental series...In PowerPlay, men are not only vested with the allegorical import long the province of the female nude, they are equally made over into representative figures, for these paintings are never of specific men, but of masculinity as typology... Masculinity, as Chicago knows well, may be a gender performance adopted by any biological sex, but only those disinherited by masculinity—women, children, queers, the effeminate of all genders—understand that the performance of masculinity is just that, a performance.” 
Judy Chicago talks about PowerPlay at David Richard Gallery Many artists insist that only their recent work is of interest, which I can understand. But it seems that my work takes a very long time to be understood. As a result, some bodies of art—like PowerPlay—are only now being appreciated. The same holds true for my early work which, thanks to the Getty funded initiative “Pacific Standard Time,” emerged from decades in storage to be celebrated in multiple exhibitions in southern California. And this fall, selections from Judy Chicago: Deflowered, the exhibition mounted at Nye + Brown of my early work, will open at Riflemaker Gallery in London. At the same time, Ben Uri, the London Jewish Museum of Art, will launch a show looking at another unknown aspect of my oeuvre—autobiography, memoir and a number of intimate works (including Autobiography of a Year, 140 drawings chronicling the ups and downs of a year) that will introduce viewers to the private Judy Chicago. In conjunction with the Ben Uri show, a comprehensive catalog will be published by Lund Humphries featuring essays by British art historian Frances Borzello, and Andrew Perchuk, Deputy Director of the Getty Research Institute and one of the curators of “Pacific Standard Time.” Simultaneously, a tribute exhibition will be mounted at The Black-E, an alternative arts center in Liverpool. They will also publish a lecture on Virginia Woolf that I presented there over three decades ago. When I re-read the talk in preparation for this publication, I almost wept because it captures so perfectly the passionate young woman I was, determined to make a contribution to the world. For both me and Through the Flower, our goals are slowly being realized, thanks in part to the generous support of so many friends who have stayed with us through thick and thin. Please consult Get Out Your Calendars to find out about other events both here in America and abroad. Perhaps I’ll see you at one of these. In the meantime, thank you for your ongoing support. 
Fourth Dinner Party Institute a Great Success --Marilyn Stewart, Ph.D., Institute Director 
Marilyn Stewart “Creating Pathways With The Dinner Party,” the fourth annual summer institute to explore The Dinner Party—its history, meaning and relevance for today’s classrooms—was held July 8–13, 2012, at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. Sponsored jointly by Through The Flower, the National Art Education Association, and Kutztown University, and held in newly renovated state-of-the-art facilities, the Institute hosted participants from regions in and near Pennsylvania and from as far away as Louisiana and Texas. Through a series of highly interactive sessions led by our team of dedicated educators, participants investigated The Dinner Party as a catalyst for learning about the history of women in the Western world, gender issues, feminism and feminist pedagogy. Each day was packed with opportunities to experience and explore the 14 Encounters of The Dinner Party Curriculum while developing new ideas and lessons with a focus on K-12 teaching. 
DPI participants consider “pathways” to other artworks 
DPI participants investigate handwork During the much anticipated visit to the Brooklyn Museum on Thursday, museum educator Alexa Fairchild and Assistant Curator Saisha Grayson teamed up to present pathways from The Dinner Party to several artworks in the Museum collection. With each artwork, this dynamic team demonstrated ways to think about art from a feminist perspective and showcased strategies to explore artworks through inquiry-based experiences. As a special treat, Judy Chicago joined the group in the afternoon for a conversation about how participants might take what they learned during the Institute back to their own students. In her comments, Judy emphasized the importance of teaching the next generation of young people about women’s achievements and talked with each participant about her or his curricular plans. This conversation with Judy reinforced for us the important goal of The Dinner Party Institute. The Minx Auerbach Award and Reception
My abiding goal for The Dinner Party was to educate future generations about women's rich heritage and their
important contributions to Western civilization.
Judy’s words are from the introduction she wrote for The Dinner Party Curriculum, the cornerstone of the annual summer institute. As participants prepare to leave the institute, they share their initial ideas about how they plan to implement and/or adapt the various teaching suggestions, called “Encounters,” in the Curriculum. Once they return to their own settings and engage their students in investigation of The Dinner Party, they are encouraged to share their accomplishments by applying for The Minx Auerbach Award for Excellence in Education, named in memory of a former Through The Flower Board member. The award is presented each year to someone who demonstrates how deep investigation of The Dinner Party has served as the content and/or catalyst for teaching and learning, and how classroom instruction has been consistent with the content and principles of The Dinner Party Curriculum. Brandy Noody, a high school art teacher from Fredonia, New York, was awarded the third Minx Auerbach Award for Excellence in Education. Brandy wa a 2011 participant whose students explored the iconic work and investigated the lives of women represented at the table. In her remarks, Judy talked about the importance of the overall The Dinner Party Project, including the Institute and Curriculum. Auerbach’s daughter, Penny Friedberg, was joined by her daughter, Minx Auerbach’s granddaughter, Leah, to present the award to Brandy. Looking Forward to 2013 Through evaluations and reflections, we know that this wonderful group of participants left our week with a deeper understanding of The Dinner Party and a working knowledge of The Dinner Party Curriculum. Some see it as a responsibility to move the project forward. As one teacher reflected, “I understand that it is my responsibility as an educator and enlightened individual to spread the word about what I learned, whether it is through my curriculum that I will reach my students or though my encouragement and sharing with my fellow teachers, family and friends.” Participants soon will begin to incorporate parts of the Curriculum into their own teaching and will share their experiences through curriculum documents and other means. Some will come to the 2013 Institute to tell their implementation stories to the next group of teachers who enroll in The Dinner Party Summer Institute. The 2013 Institute will be held again at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania in July. We invite you to visit The Dinner Party Institute website often to learn more about our Institute Team and speakers, find resources for teaching, and for updated information about the 2013 Institute.
Living Archives: The Judy Chicago Art Education Collection
--Karen Keifer-Boyd, Ph.D, Professor, Penn State University 
Teaching Conversations, Penn State professors using collection in feminist project; Karen Keifer-Boyd center The Judy Chicago Art Education Collection at Penn State will give Penn State students and visiting scholars an unprecedented opportunity to work with original source materials of a key founder of the feminist art movement and a prolific artist to create a new corpus of work on the subject of feminist art pedagogy. The Judy Chicago Art Education Collection is an emerging landscape of materials on feminist art pedagogy. The Collection’s availability for continued scholarship is a counterbalance to ongoing tendencies of erasure of feminist histories. It is a living archive housed at Penn State University’s Special Collections Library. 
Visiting scholars discuss material in the collection 
Nightmare Nursery, Baker and Turner 2002 installation in At Home exhibition Judy Chicago’s teaching methodology is similar in many ways to how she approaches artmaking. Her methodology guides how to transform personal experience into a tangible content-based visual expression that is accessible to and engaging for a larger community. When you look at the artworks produced within Judy Chicago’s 11 different teaching projects, they stimulate discussion. The images are incredibly powerful. We have digitized for all to have access via the Internet a selection of about 300 slides from the many slides in the collection) from each of the 11 Judy Chicago Teaching Projects archived at Penn State. Click here for link to the digitized teaching projects. 
Art education doctoral students reviewing collection slides The collection, a gift to the Libraries from artist, author, and educator Judy Chicago, complements The Dinner Party Curriculum Online Project, developed by Marilyn Stewart, Peg Speirs, and Carrie Nordlund, under the directorship of Marilyn Stewart, and in collaboration with Judy Chicago and Constance Bumgarner Gee, given by the Through the Flower organization (TTF) to Penn State as a living curriculum to preserve into perpetuity. For the collection we have also created a website that continues to grow. On opening the website Judy Chicago dramatically conveys why we need to develop a feminist archival sensibility. The widely publicized Grand Jury indictments and July 2012 Freeh Report regarding the silence of reporting rape, ethics of patriarchal university leadership, undue privilege and power over others, child sexual abuse, and other issues raised by the Penn State scandal has required much needed change and provoked dialogue toward feminist principles of voice and empowerment. Dr. Barbara Dewey, Dean of Penn State University Libraries, is a voice of institutional change in stating: “I believe that Judy Chicago's archive along with the acquisition of other feminist collections will be instrumental resources for changing the culture at the university. The contents and scholarship around the Collection represent a sensibility and breadth of voices sorely needed at both the school and the society.” My commitment is to an art education that builds agency and empowerment for all through arts-based research, content-based art, and critical reflective dialogue. These three practices are integral to the newly acquired Penn State University Libraries archives of Judy Chicago’s teaching projects. These content-based artworks and the process of their making, and the development of feminist art pedagogy of agency and empowerment provide excellent examples of work toward social justice. |
President's BoxThe President's Box is a new feature on our newsletter. 
Judy Kovler, TTF President Saturday with Judy On Saturday, July 7th, Judy Chicago and Through the Flower presented “Saturday with Judy,” a fundraising event for TTF. The fundraiser was held in connection with the major exhibition of Chicago’s body of work, ReViewing PowerPlay, at the new David Richard Gallery at the Railyard in Santa Fe. This rarely seen groundbreaking work from the 1980’s explores the construct of masculinity. The first event of the day, a public conversation between Judy Chicago and Dr. Jonathan D. Katz, SUNY Buffalo professor and leading queer theorist, presented in partnership with the New Mexico Museum of Art, discussed various works in this iconic series. The dynamics between the two speakers heightened the discussion and evoked much audience participation. 
Mary Scully, Judy Chicago, and Jonathan Katz After the public event, Judy and Jonathan led a tour of the exhibition at a private reception hosted at the gallery, with refreshments generously provided by Zia Diner. The opportunity to see this body of work up close, and simultaneously hear the artist and Jonathan interact while standing in front of the monumental paintings, made for a memorable event. Through the Flower thanks the following event sponsors:
Minx Auerbach Award 2012Each year, Through the Flower presents the Minx Auerbach Award for Excellence in Teaching to the teacher who demonstrates how deep exploration of The Dinner Party has served as the content and/or catalyst for teaching and learning. This year’s award went to Brandy Noody. In her application, Brandy described how her students were changed as a result of their experiences investigating and responding to The Dinner Party.
“The Dinner Party Institute has changed me as an educator, a woman, an artist, and a mother. It has strengthened
my teaching practice, empowered me as a woman, allowed me to examine new forms within my own art, and opened
my eyes to raising sons. Thank you!"
Judy Chicago congratulates Brandy Noody 
Brandy Noody, 2012 Award recipient (center) is joined by Auerbach’s daughter, Penny Friedberg (left) and granddaughter, Leah (right) The Dinner Party Institute TeamThe Dinner Party Institute Team consists of Marilyn Stewart, Director, and other Kutztown University faculty members Amy Pfeiler-Wunder and Nicole Romanski, who served as Institute Facilitators. Kutztown University graduate student, Carrie Miller, and Penn State doctoral student, Amy Bloom, served as Associate Facilitators. Martin Rosenberg, Professor of Art History and Chair of Fine Arts at Rutgers University, Camden, and Cheri Erlich, doctoral candidate at Teachers College, Columbia University, and Senior Museum Educator, Brooklyn Museum, were Featured Speakers. In addition, Deborah Filbin, 2011 Minx Auerbach Award recipient, and Brandy Noody, winner of the 2012 Auerbach Award, presented about their award-winning curricula. Get Out Your Calendars 2012SOLO EXHIBITIONS Voices from the Song of Songs Nov 8, 2012 – Dec 31, 2012
The Black-E
Judy Chicago Nov 14, 2012 – Mar 10, 2013
Ben Uri, The London Jewish Museum of Art
Judy Chicago: Deflowered in London Nov 12, 2012 – Dec 31, 2012 Riflemaker
GROUP EXHIBITIONS Spectrum of Sexuality Opening Sep, 2012 Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Museum
Expo Chicago Sep 19 – 23, 2012 Nye + Brown Booth
Ends of the Earth: Land Art to 1974 Oct 12, 2012 – Jan 20, 2013 Haus der Kunst
LECTURES Judy Chicago in conversation with Art Historian Frances Borzello and Andrew Perchuk, Deputy Director of the Getty Research Institute Nov 14, 2012 Whitechapel Art Gallery
Surveying Judy Chicago: An Artist's Career Dec 5, 2012 Herron School of Art and Design, IUPUI
Through the Flower (the book) Goes Digital
We are thrilled that “Through the Flower: My Struggle as a Woman Artist,” Judy Chicago’s autobiography first published in 1975, is now available as an e-book. With an introduction by Anais Nin (who was Judy’s mentor, inspiring her to start writing), this candid memoir has been read all over the world, bringing knowledge of Judy’s art and philosophy to an audience hungry to understand the obstacles women in the arts have faced. Available in e-book format from Amazon.com or Kindle format from Google Books. Support Through the Flower You can help us continue TTF's mission of educating a broad public about the importance of art and its power in countering the erasure of women’s achievements. Join or renew your membership in TTF today, or visit our TTF shop.
Your support is very important to us.
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