March's calendar is celebrating Women's History month!

And the celebration of women will continue on my dailydress blog, where I will be posting quotes by women daily, and whenever possible a bit of a bio of that day's woman.  

Some history behind Women's History Month:

Women’s History Month had its origins as a national celebration in 1981 when Congress passed Pub. L. 97-28 which authorized and requested the President to proclaim the week beginning March 7, 1982 as “Women’s History Week.” Throughout the next five years, Congress continued to pass joint resolutions designating a week in March as “Women’s History Week.” In 1987 after being petitioned by the National Women’s History Project, Congress passed Pub. L. 100-9 which designated the month of March 1987 as “Women’s History Month.” Between 1988 and 1994, Congress passed additional resolutions requesting and authorizing the President to proclaim March of each year as Women’s History Month. Since 1995, Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama have issued a series of annual proclamations designating the month of March as “Women’s History Month.”

CLicK here to read to learn more:

https://womenshistorymonth.gov

Thank you and peace, 

virginia

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March is National Women's History Month ...

... so I am going to take this month to highlight some famous women that you may not know much about, and I am starting with Judy Chicago, artist, author, feminist, educator, and intellectual whose career now spans five decades. 

I chose Judy Chicago to be my first feature because she was a pioneer of Feminist art in the early 70's and has done extensive writing about women and feminism.  

She notes how that throughout history women have been doing amazing acts of science, arts, politics,... however there is no mention of these accomplishments because those who were writing the history books (men) felt that women's contributions were not important enough mention. 

 To give you proof of this, the text book for my college course of the Survey of Art History did NOT feature a woman artist?!?!? and I took this class int he 80's?!?!? No Georgia O'Keeffe, no Frida Kahlo, even no Mary Cassatt?!?!? This was disconcerting for a female college student that was planning to get her degree in the Arts!! 

It is this omission of women's achievements in record books, history books and in general is why having National Women's History month is SO important.  And with the current events happening in our government and in our society, celebrating the works and accomplishments of women could not be more necessary. 

So, on this blog for the month of March, I am going to share some amazing women with you, most of them artists, some very famous, some less known. I plan to post some pictures of their works and then links to sites where you can find more information about them, otherwise I would spend the entire month writing about each woman. 

but for now ... a bit about 

Judy Chicago.

Judy Chicago is the brains, the energy, the talent and the women behind the amazing 'Dinner Party', an installation celebrating the history of women. Fortunately it has found a permanent home at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum of Art  where I was able to experience and absorb all the richness that this piece has to offer.

The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago is an icon of feminist art, which represents 1,038 women in history—39 women are represented by place settings and another 999 names are inscribed in the Heritage Floor on which the table rests. This monumental work of art is comprised of a triangular table divided by three wings, each 48 feet long.

https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/home/  

Besides the awesomeness of Chicago's installation, I was also moved by all the research and factual information that Chicago presented along side her 'Dinner Party'.  One of those components was the Heritage Panels.  These panels presented so many accomplished and successful women, many that i had not known of before.  

The seven Heritage Panels are large-scale hand-colored photo-and-text collages (ranging in size from 57 1/2 x 70 3/4 to 57 1/2 x 107") that portray the lives of the mythical and historical women whose names are inscribed in the Heritage Floor of The Dinner Party. Judy Chicago, with the help of a team of researchers, selected 999 women from prehistory to the 20th century, whose example impacted women's history and the improvement of women's conditions. Hand-written on porcelain tiles, these names make up the physical and symbolic foundation for The Dinner Party.

I encourage you to read more about Judy Chicago and 'The Dinner Party' because both have SO much to teach us and show us about the amazing accomplishments of the many talented, brilliant, strong, determined, political, funny, wise and nasty women that have come before us.

peace