Finding Aid: The Southern California Women Artists Archives 

The Southern California WOMEN ARTISTS Archives (SCWAA)

Historic Context:

Since the late sixties the greater Los Angeles area has been the focal point of pioneering projects in the Second Wave of the Women’s Art Movement.   The very first national exhibition of women’s art took place at LACMA  in 1976, titled “WOMEN ARTISTS: 1550-1950.”  Concurrently, pioneers in women’s art were founding The Woman’s Building in Los Angeles, The S. CA. Women’s Caucus for Art, Chrysalis Magazine, and eventually ArtTable, an organization for women in the arts who are curators, gallery owners, museum and gallery directors, critics, and art historians. The pioneers of these and many other projects in women’s art history reside in Los Angeles or in other parts of Southern California.

Archival project:

Under the direction of Professor Gloria Orenstein, a joint faculty member in the Gender Studies Program and the Department of Comparative Literature, undergraduate students enrolled in her ARLT 100 course (Women and Art) interview women artists from Southern California and write term-papers based on the interviews.  In the process, students collect digital and other archival material such as videos, books, catalogues, posters, etc. from the women artists who participated in the creation of the vibrant women’s art movement in Southern California.  The materials are deposited in the Helen Topping Architecture and Fine Arts Library at USC.  To view the files, please call (213) 740-1956.

Neither the interviews nor the papers can be used for commercial purposes, nor can they be published or used in any other way without obtaining permission from the artists and the students.

Faculty:  Gloria Orenstein

Course: ARLT 100: Women and Art

Date: Fall 2006, Fall 2007, Spring 2008