The Dinner Party

March is Women's History Month and Mesa Community College had a Women's Studies Conference that was really great. I am not saying that because I was given the honor of twice presenting the Bravery project to students and staff members, which was a lot of fun. I am saying it was great because I got to meet feminist and art legend, Judy Chicago.

Among her many artworks, Judy is best known for her huge installation piece called The Dinner Party. Each side of the triangle is 48 feet, together represents women in history who have made a significant contribution in life, but was obscured over by the by the male-dominated edits of historical texts. With no women studies programs and almost no information on women in history during the 60's, the artist painstakingly researched historically significant women from all over the world and brought 1035 of them back to life in her installation and in her beautifully written textbook. After traveling all over the world, The Dinner Party now has a permanent home in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY.

Listening to her speak was very engaging and humbling. When I met her I'm sure I stumbled over my words a bit when realizing what an amazing and determined person she is. I bought her book The Dinner Party and brought it to her for a signature. Standing there I blurted out about my Bravery project and what I was doing, hoping to show that we are both telling stories about people through our art. I left feeling a skip in my step and excited to read about all the awesome women that I (we) never learned about in school.

There was an intimate dinner party later that evening that I could not attend, but I found the next day that she spoke about my project at that dinner and gave encouragement to support our efforts (yes that means all of you wonderful volunteers, sponsors, and coordinators) in this project to make it successful. How about that!!


Judy Chicago
Through the Flower
The Dinner Party