Challenge Yourself: Judy Chicago's Studio Art Pedagogy

“Challenge Yourself: Judy Chicago’s Studio Art Pedagogy,” an exhibition, is on display from March 24 to June 13 in The Eberly Family Special Collections Library, 104 Paterno Library. The exhibit is one of many activities at Penn State, during spring 2014, to celebrate Chicago and her work and can be viewed online. 

In 2011, artist, author and educator Judy Chicago gave Penn State University Libraries the Judy Chicago Art Education Collection, one of the most important private collections of feminist art education. The collection includes textual, photographic, graphic and audiovisual materials related to various art education projects and instruction of Chicago as well as her extensive journal writing about her teaching. It began in the early 1970s, when after a decade of professional art practice, Chicago began a program for women at the California State College, in Fresno — a pedagogical approach to art education that expanded and continues.

University Archivist Jackie Esposito wrote, “Art is tactile; archives are contextual. For each moment that art touches the human soul, an archive offers a visual, written or audio reflection of that event to provide visceral documentation for the ages. Art transcends time; archives capture the moments that resonate within human experience and preserve them for eternity. Judy Chicago’s archival collection allows the researcher to connect her art with her need to instruct the viewer over a transom of ideas, ideologies, concepts, theories and emotions, so that when the viewer walks away from the work, he or she is changed forever.”

The exhibition is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and from 1 to 5 p.m. during the spring semester.

The Judy Chicago events are sponsored at Penn State by the Friends of the Palmer Museum of Art, the School of Visual Arts, the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, the Office of Research in the College of Arts and Architecture, The Eberly Family Special Collections Library in the University Libraries, the HUB-Robeson Galleries, the Women’s Studies Program, the Sexuality and Gender Studies Minor, the Women’s Studies Graduate Organization and the Department of Art History, as well as Through the Flower and the National Art Education Association Women’s Caucus.

For more information or if you anticipate needing accessibility accommodations or have questions about the physical access provided, contact Jackie Esposito at jxe2@psu.edu or 814-863-3791.

Behind-the-scenes look at the Special Collections Library

Chip Kidd with sketch of his iconic image for 
Jurassic Park book cover.
Image credit: Wilson Hitton for the Eberly Family Special
Collections Library

Discover what's so special!

The public is invited to discover What’s “special” in the Special Collections Library, from 2:30 to 4 p.m. Friday, April 11, in The Eberly Family Special Collections Library, 104 Paterno Library, Penn State University Park.

Ever wonder what is so “special” about the Special Collections Library? Join us to find out. Rare book curator Sandy Stelts will show attendees rare and unique children’s “flap books” also known as “metamorphoses” or “harlequinades” and also demonstrate how Penn State faculty are studying and digitizing them. University Archivist Jackie Esposito will introduce visitors to the sports archives and explain Penn State's athletic history is preserved. Huck chair and head of the special collections Tim Pyatt will give a preview of the newly acquired Chip Kidd collection, which includes everything from book jacket designs to nearly one terabyte of digital records. Staff also will be available to guide visitors through the current exhibit, “Challenge Yourself: Judy Chicago’s
Studio Art Pedagogy.”


For more information or questions about the physical access provided, contact LuAnn Shifter at lus7@psu.edu or 814-867-0290.

-Article originally appeared at news.psu.edu

2014 Mann Lecture -- April 4th

On April 4^th Matthew G. Kirschenbaum will deliver the Mann Lecture at 4:30 in the Foster Auditorium of the Paterno Library. His talk is titled “Invalid Keystroke: Recovering a Literary History of Word Processing.” A reception follows in the Mann Assembly Room. The Charles W. Mann Jr. Lecture in the Book Arts is supported by the Mary Louise Krumrine Endowment.

Kirschenbaum is an associate professor in the department of English at the University of Maryland and is associate director of the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH). A 2011 Guggenheim fellow, Kirschenbaum specializes in digital humanities, electronic literature and creative new media, textual studies, and postmodern/experimental literature.

Please RSVP to: lus7@psu.edu by March 28 if you plan to attend either the lunch or the reception.