Lesbian Art Project (1977 – 1979) was a participatory art movement founded by Terry Wolverton and Arlene Raven at the

Woman's Building The Woman's Building was a non-profit arts and education center located in Los Angeles, California. The Woman's Building focused on feminist art and served as a venue for the women's movement and was spearheaded by artist Judy Chicago, graphic de ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. The pioneering project focused on giving a platform to

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

and

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

perspectives of participants through

performance A performance is an act or process of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function. Performance has evolved glo ...

, art making, salons,

workshop Beginning with the Industrial Revolution era, a workshop may be a room, rooms or building which provides both the area and tools (or machinery) that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods. Workshops were the only ...

s and

writing Writing is the act of creating a persistent representation of language. A writing system includes a particular set of symbols called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which they encode a particular spoken language. Every written language ...

. One significant piece of work created during the project was ''An Oral

Herstory Herstory is a term for history written from a feminist perspective and emphasizing the role of women, or told from a woman's point of view. It originated as an alteration of the word "history", as part of a feminist critique of conventional his ...

of Lesbianism'', in 1979, which documented lesbian women and their feelings, views, experiences, and expression. The Lesbian Art Project was part of an ongoing effort by Arlene Raven, co-founder of the Woman's Building, to incorporate lesbian-oriented programming into the

Feminist Studio Workshop The Feminist Art Program (FAP) was a college-level art program for women developed in 1970 by artist Judy Chicago and continued by artists Rita Yokoi, Miriam Schapiro, and others. The FAP began at Fresno State College, as a way to address gender in ...

, which had already launched the Los Angeles League for the Advancement of Lesbianism in the Arts (LALALA) in 1975. Critics and artists influenced by the tenets of

postmodernism Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, Culture, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting ...

dismissed much of the art work made in the 1970s from a lesbian feminist perspective. This has resulted in very little being known or written about this pioneering work. The activities and events associated with the Lesbian Art Project at the Woman's Building in Los Angeles have played a larger role in lesbian

art history Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...

than is often acknowledged. The project began with six women (started by Terry Wolverton) working collectively with a common goal of increasing opportunity for lesbian artists and writing a chapter of lesbian art. This small group disbanded in less than a year but Wolverton and Raven continued in their pursuit of a Lesbian Art Movement. As they continued their project they became astonishingly productive, and they were able to integrate the Lesbian Art Project with the curriculum of the Feminist Studio Workshop at the Woman's Building. At the Woman's Building they were able to organize a major performance event based on lesbian identities: ''The Oral Herstory of Lesbianism (Oral)''. Advertised as "Storytelling, Theater and Magic for Women Only", the project was directed by Wolverton and its stories generated through a workshop for the thirteen performers. The scenes addressed a wide range of issues, including

butch and femme ''Butch'' and ''femme'' (; ; ) are Masculinity, masculine (Butch (lesbian slang), ''butch'') or Femininity, feminine (Femme, ''femme'') identities in the lesbian subculture that have associated traits, behaviors, styles, self-perception, and s ...

identities, incest and sexual abuse, and lesbian stereotypes. Another performance sponsored by the LAP was Terry Wolverton and Ann Shannon's ''FEMINA: An IntraSpace Voyage'' (1978), which was created as a response to popular, patriarchal science fiction and is considered to be an example of lesbian feminist camp. Along with the major performance events, a database for lesbian artists was now in existence. Wolverton and Raven went their separate ways before completing the book they had planned but both continued to individually promote feminist and lesbian art. A partial successor to the LAP was the 1980 Great American Lesbian Art Show (GALAS), also at the Woman's Building.

References

External links

2010 interview with Terry Wolverton
{{Lesbian feminism American artist groups and collectives Arts organizations based in Los Angeles Art movements in North America Lesbian culture in California Lesbian feminist organizations in the United States Lesbian history in the United States LGBTQ women artists Women in Los Angeles

References

Further reading

External links