UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State University Libraries has announced the relaunch of an expanded Judy Chicago Research Portal, a searchable gateway to the archives of this prominent feminist artist. The portal is intended to facilitate and support research and curriculum development around Chicago’s work and feminist art in general.
Initially launched in October 2019, the portal now features selections from her collections housed at the Nevada Museum of Art, the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation and the portal’s three founding partners, Schlesinger Library for the History of Women in America at Harvard University, the National Museum of Women in the Arts and Penn State University Libraries, the portal’s host. These five institutions have collaborated to expand the portal, providing unified access to these archives and collections.
Visitors to the portal can search across all five collections, or view holdings organized under “Bodies of Work” and “Themes” ranging across Chicago’s long career. Highlights include archival images of artworks and exhibitions from the 1960s to the present; working notes, correspondence and research behind her historic installation “The Dinner Party” (1974-79) as well as “The Dinner Party K-12 curriculum,” written by Chicago with a team of distinguished curriculum writers at Penn State; her comprehensive fireworks archives, including materials related to Chicago’s extensive bodies of work with colored smoke, dry ice and fireworks; and a complete collection of her work in printmaking.
With this update, the Portal is now sharing highlights and news on Instagram @judychicagoportal. Judy Chicago collections at Penn State are available through the University Libraries website and through the Judy Chicago Art Education Collection website in addition to the portal.
An influential feminist artist, author and educator, Judy Chicago helped establish the Feminist Art Movement of the 1970s and was named one of Time Magazine’s most influential people in 2018. Born Judy Cohen in Chicago, Illinois, in 1939, and known briefly after her first marriage as Judy Gerowitz, Chicago attended the Art Institute of Chicago and UCLA. In 1970, the artist adopted the surname “Chicago” and initiated the United States’ first Feminist Art Program at California State University, Fresno. Decades later, Chicago’s work and art education continues to address themes from women’s lives and other social justice concerns. Chicago resides and collaborates with her husband, photographer Donald Woodman, in Belen, New Mexico.