With a mission to present feminist art and explore its meaning and influence, the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art is the only public space of its kind in the United States, and it celebrates its fifth anniversary in March with a wide range of public program and events. The celebration will culminate in the Sackler Center First Awards on April 18, honoring contemporary women who are first in their fields.
Since its opening in 2007, the Sackler Center has attracted more than half a million visitors and has made a vital contribution to the visual arts by raising awareness of feminism's cultural contribution and educating new generations about the significance of feminist art, becoming a dynamic learning facility.
The Dinner Party (1979) by Judy Chicago, an icon of American art donated to the Brooklyn Museum in 2002 by the Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation, is the centerpiece of the 8,000-square-foot Center. Surrounded by galleries for changing exhibitions and a space for educational activities, the dramatic design of the Sackler Center was created by award-winning architect Susan T. Rodriguez, a partner in Ennead Architects. The well-known feminist art historian and curator Catherine Morris has served as curator of the Sackler Center since 2009.
"Visitors to the Brooklyn Museum are extremely fortunate to have this extraordinary facility which, in its five years, has presented a remarkable range of exhibitions of works by artists such as Kiki Smith, Lorna Simpson, Eva Hesse, and, currently, gifted British artist Rachel Kneebone, making her museum debut in the United States. Elizabeth Sackler's vision has granted feminist art the long-awaited recognition it deserves. We are enormously grateful for her generosity," comments Brooklyn Museum Director Arnold L. Lehman. The center has also hosted hundreds of artist talks, panel discussions, and lectures on feminist art. The Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art was established through the support of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation. "It has been a pleasure and a privilege to help create and develop this Center that celebrates and nurtures not only one of the most influential art movements of the twentieth century, but creates a venue for the exchange of information and ideas that are of vital importance to feminism," says Dr. Sackler, President of the Foundation.
Two exhibitions celebrate the fifth anniversary of the center. Rachel Kneebone: Regarding Rodin, on view through August 12, presents eight of Kneebone's intricately wrought, large-scale porcelain sculptures paired with fifteen Rodin sculptures, part of a gift from Iris and B. Gerald Cantor to the Museum collection. Newspaper Fiction: The New York Journalism of Djuna Barnes, 1913-1919, on view through August 19, features drawings, works on paper, documentary photographs and newsprint stories by the celebrated writer and early twentieth-century women's rights advocate.
A public historian, arts activist, advocate for Native Americans, and patron of the arts, Elizabeth A. Sackler was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Brooklyn Museum in the autumn of 2000. Dr. Sackler is president and CEO of the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, president of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation, founder and president of the American Indian Ritual Object Repatriation Foundation, and a member of the National Advisory Board of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. A lecturer, panelist, and writer, she has written extensively about the repatriation of ceremonial material to Native Americans and on the ethical issues that confront the Native American art market. She is the editor of the 2002 book Judy Chicago, a survey of the artist's work. Dr. Sackler has been the recipient of many awards and citations, among them ArtTable's prestigious Distinguished Service to the Visual Arts Award in 2006.
The Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation was founded in 2002 to raise awareness of the contributions of women in all areas of art and culture with a specific focus on feminist art. It has fulfilled its mission through the support of women and feminist art exhibitions in museums throughout the United States, and with the gift in 2002 of Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party to the Brooklyn Museum. Dr. Sackler and foundation trustees Janet Bajan and Janet McKay, Esq., have supported and worked along with Museum Director Arnold L. Lehman and the staff of the Brooklyn Museum in the creation and maintenance of the center, and of its exhibitions and programming.
Highlights of the public programs celebrating the fifth anniversary of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art are listed below. Presentations by the Sackler Center are preceded by asterisks.
