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.