Records of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art
Scope and Contents
The records of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art currently document the exhibitions, permanent gallery installations, Museum Spotlights, and administrative files created by the curatorial staff. The records currently span 2016-2024, but the collection will be expanding with additional records transfers sometime in the future.
The collection includes research on artists/exhibitions, checklists, label copy and didactics, exhibition layouts, meeting minutes, correspondence and printed email, essays, speeches/talking points for tours and speaking engagements, praise, collected material, zines, and files on former staff activities.
In the archives exhibitions are written like this: Exhibition full title [date opening-date closing]. Additional dates after the exhibition date describe the years of the content within the folder or box. As an example, María Magdalena Campos-Pons: Behold [09/15/2023-01/14/2024], 2018-2024 has the dates the exhibit were open in brackets, followed by the dates of the exhibition file after.
The files of Curatorial Assistants and Associates for the Center of Feminist Art often contain exhibit files for other departments and/or special exhibitions. These have been kept together instead of separated in order to provide context for the work of the Assistants and Associates.
Dates
- 2016-2024
Creator
- Brooklyn Museum (Organization)
Conditions Governing Access
Acquisition information, objects offered for sale, checklists with insurance values and/or locations, collecting strategies, floorplans with building information, and files on wages/job titles are restricted to staff only.
Historical
The Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, a curatorial department of the Brooklyn Museum, opened dedicated galleries and programming space on the 4th floor in March of 2007 with the exhibition Global Feminisms.
In 2002 Elizabeth A. Sackler gifted the Brooklyn Museum the now iconic artwork The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago. The Dinner Party was intitially shown at the Brooklyn Museum in 1980, but was without a permanent home until 2002. The Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation additionally donated funds to create the unique and groundbreaking Elizabth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art in 2003. The Center provides gallery space for the The Dinner Party, additional exhibit space, programming space, and funding for a curator of feminist art.
The December 2003 press release states that the mission of the Center "...will be to enhance the understanding and public awareness of feminist art's contribution to contemporary art and American culture." Maura Reilly served as the first feminist art curator from September 2003 through November 2008. Susan T. Rodriguez, FAIA, of Polshek Partnership Architects was selected to design the 8,300 square feet Center for Feminist Art which is located on the 4th floor of the Brooklyn Museum.
The first exhibition of the Center for Feminist Art was Global Feminisms and was co-curated by Maura Reilly and art historian Linda Nochlin. Opening during the 30th anniversary of the groundbreaking exhibition Women Artists 1550-1950 which was also co-curated by Linda Nochlin, the exhibit showed works by more than 100 women artists who represented roughly 50 countries. Reilly states: "In Global Feminisms, we are attempting to construct a definition of ‘feminist’ art that is as broad and flexible as possible....Linda and I kept asking what it means to be a feminist in radically different cultural, political, and class situations. And we found not one definition, but many; hence, the term ‘feminisms.’"(Global Feminisms press release, 2006).
Catherine Morris was hired as the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center curator in 2009.
Curators of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art
- September 2003 - November 2008
- Maura Reilly
- 2009 - current
- Catherine Morris
Extent
4 Linear Feet
Language of Materials
English
Arrangement
This collection is arranged into 3 series: Exhibitions, Gallery Installations and Objects, and Administrative Files. Exhibitions are arranged chronologically. Gallery Installations and Objects are arranged chronologically. Administrative files are arranged alphabetically, with the exception of departmental meeting minutes and histories being listed first.
- Title
- Finding aid to the Records of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art
- Status
- In Progress
- Author
- Stephanie Crawford, Archivist and Records Manager
- Date
- 2025
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Brooklyn Museum Archives Repository