The Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art opened on March 23, 2007 at the Brooklyn Museum as the first public space of its kind in the country; it is a nexus for feminist art, theory, and activism. The center, located on the museum's fourth floor, aims to create a compelling and interactive environment to raise awareness and educate future generations about feminism’s impact on culture. Since 2007 the Center has been the permanent home of Judy Chicago's landmark feminist work The Dinner Party. The Center's Forum is a venue for public programs and a platform of advocacy for women’s issues, and its Feminist Art and Herstory galleries present critically acclaimed . The Council for Feminist Art, a membership group, supports the ongoing educational programming and the continuing success of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. The Center's namesake and founder, Elizabeth A. Sackler, is a philanthropist and art collector.
Layout
The Dinner Partys gallery is the centerpiece of a dramatic design for the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art that was conceived and developed by award-winning architect , FAIA, a partner in Ennead Architects. The Dinner Party, which includes 39 placesettings as well as the names of 999 women on a Heritage Floor, is enclosed in large, canting glass walls that provide a first glimpse of Chicago’s work. It is surrounded by a series of distinct, yet interconnected series of galleries that include two changing exhibition galleries and a study center that can be transformed from an academic forum into a multimedia gallery, as required, by a large pivoting wall.
Past exhibitions
The Center's opening exhibition, "Global Feminisms" was the first international exhibit exclusively dedicated to feminist art from 1990 to the present. It was curated by Maura Reilly and Linda Nochlin.
An original initiative from the Center for Feminist Art is its “Feminist Art Base, conceptualized by the Center's founding curator, Maura Reilly.” This database is a self-generated selection of past and present artists, whose work reflect feminist ideas, investments, and concerns, such as Karen Heagle, Julia Kunin and Clarity Haynes. The database is actively added to with artists from the around the world, who continue to build their profiles. Each profile includes short biographies, CVs, and exemplary works as well as a “Feminist Art Statement.” This personal and living database wishes to be a comprehensive resource for achieving the Center’s mission: “to present feminism in an approachable and relevant manner, to educate new generations about the meaning of feminist art, and to raise awareness of feminism's cultural contributions.”
First Awards
In March 2012 The Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art celebrated its fifth anniversary by honoring fifteen contemporary women with the Sackler Center First Awards. The awards, conceived by Elizabeth Sackler, are given each year to women who have broken a gender barrier to make a remarkable achievement and contribution in her respective field. The honorees are: 2016:
