Hello everyone!
Has it really been an entire year since I have written a blog entry about my
teaching adventures? My apologies! It has certainly been a busy year. Our
family welcomed a baby girl into the world in March and I have been very busy
juggling the demands of being a mother and a teacher. I figured now that it is
summer, the chores are done, and baby is sleeping, I better take a moment to
write an entry!
Although I have lots of adventures to share with you, I would like to
begin by reflecting on a graduate class I recently took at Kutztown University
entitled “Creating Pathways with The Dinner
Party.” This institute met for a full week. I met many educators and
artists from across the country. In the class, we learned a great deal about
gender issues related to visual culture, the role of women in the art world,
women’s arts, feminism, and of course Judy Chicago’s iconic artwork, The Dinner Party.
One of the reasons I enrolled in this class was to learn more about The Dinner Party. Although I was aware
that it honored women throughout history, I didn’t know much more than that.
Goodness gracious, did I learn a lot! Allow me to elaborate. The Dinner Party is an installation
artwork. It takes on the shape of a triangular dinner table. The triangular
shape of the table represents equality. On each side of the triangle are place
settings honoring 39 historical and fictional women who have made worthwhile contributions
to society, have advocated to improve conditions for women, or whose life/work
highlight a significant aspect of women’s history and provide a model for
greater equality in society. Each woman is represented by a unique hand-embroidered
banner and ceramic plate. (My goodness are they stunning!) Each banner includes
the woman’s name and is embroidered with symbols and designs that reflect her
life and achievements. Each plate has an abstracted butterfly design that has
been painted with china paints, and/or sculpted in high or low relief. In the
opening of the triangular table is a tile floor with the names of 999 more
women who have made contributions to society. Their accomplishments are
elaborated on in a series of educational panels that flank the exterior of the
table. There are also 6 banners with a poem written by Judy Chicago that were
woven by hand and welcome visitors as they enter The Dinner Party. The entire artwork is massive and took
approximately 6 years to complete. Although Judy Chicago is credited with The Dinner Party, she doesn’t hesitate
to acknowledge the 400 volunteers (men and women) that helped her create the
artwork. The Dinner Party acknowledges
the achievements of women that were often overlooked or left out of history
books over time.
SO, why is this
important?
Try this. Make a list of as many artists as you can in 60 seconds – go!
Next circle the female artists on your lists.
So, how many female artists did you have? If your list was anything like
mine, the male artists heavily outweighed the female artists. (Note: I did this
with my students at the beginning of the year and NO LIST had a female artist, not
one.)
My reaction was this; “Woah. Why do I not have more female artists on the
list?” (Considering that’s half the population in the world.) Furthermore, “Why
don’t my students have female artists listed?” (Clearly I had to educate myself
in order to educate my students.)
Next, grab an art history text book. Pick a chapter. Write down all the
artists in the chapter. Circle the female artists on your list.
So, how many female artists did you have that time? I did this using the Discovering Art History textbook of my
Art Appreciation class and realized that even though there was a conscious
effort to include female artists, the male artists still outnumbered the
females, about 2/3 male to 1/3 female. I also noticed that explanations for
women’s art were lacking and not nearly as detailed as for their male
counterparts. (Note: I bet you would
find the same results if you used a general history textbook, although I have
never tried.)
After doing these two exercises, I realized that my own understanding of
women artists and women’s art was severely lacking. Worse – I didn’t even realize
it.
Back to my original
question – why is this important?
Simple. Women and their achievements have been undermined or left out of
history. It is our job as educators to help the next generation become
knowledgeable of influential female women and their art, to make the “invisible”
visible (Stewart, 2013). We should not only do this with women, but also other
groups that have been oppressed. We should strive to create curriculum that opens
up our students to the achievements and experiences of many, not just a few. We
need to go beyond merely “including” women and other groups, but elaborating on
their lives, achievements, and experiences to show their importance and
contributions to society to our students.
Okay, back to my graduate class experience. It. Was. Wonderful. I grew as
an artist. I grew as an educator. I grew as a woman. I grew as a parent. I encourage
anyone interested in learning more about The
Dinner Party to sign up for the class next year. Bonus: we got to go to NYC
and visit the Elizabeth Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum
of Art (now one of my favorite museums!) to see The Dinner Party in person. We also got to meet Judy Chicago! For more information and FREE RESOURCES (!!!)
check out www.thedinnerpartyinstitute.com.
I could go on forever about this and the zillions of other things I have learned,
but I think 930+ words I have just written will have to do for now – the baby
awakes!
Until next time!