The Woman's Building

My studio is in the Woman's Building downtown.
Last night I went to the Getty Center to see "Without Imagination There Is No Will: The Woman's Building Tapes" curated by Meg Cranston. The audience was full of all the pioneers of Feminism in Los Angeles, Suzanne Lacy, Jerri Allyn, Susan Mogul. It was exciting to be in the presence of the matriarch. I wanted to tell them that the Woman's building lives on and that their legacy endures, but I chickened out.

Most of the videos were from the Woman's building hay day approx 1973-79. There were great interviews with Arlene Raven and Judy Chicago, footage from lectures by Lucy Lippard and Mary Daly. There was some great footage of the women hanging dry wall and singing as they sanded the ceiling. It was the dawn of video art, the cameras were huge and the quality raw. All they had was TV and BETA. It's amazing how much has changed since then in terms of technology. Today ten year olds are making youtube videos on their Barbie laptops. The women could see that video had the potential to reach a broader audience. They made public service announcements and filmed their activist performances. It must have been such a liberating and exciting moment. There were no opportunities for women artists so they made their own.

The funding eventually dried up and Woman's building closed in 1991. There is a slide archive at Otis and The Getty Research Library has preserved most of the videos. The building on Spring Street is divided up into artist studios. I wish I could buy the building, tear down the walls and restore it to it's former glory, or at least make it into a museum. For now I will cherish my little over priced haven because everyone should have a room of one's own.