honored. Have them explain why
she is important to remember.
Judy Chicago, installation view showing Sojourner Truth place setting from The Dinner Party, 1979. Embroidery
on linen and china paint on porcelain. Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. Collection of the Brooklyn Museum. ©Judy Chicago/Artists Rights
Society (ARS), New York. Photo ©Donald Woodman.
Elementary
Have your students help you create a list of people who
are important in history. Take a look at the completed
list and count how many listed are men and how many
are women. Are the numbers equal? Did students list
more men than women or vice versa? Ask students to
consider why there might be a difference in the numbers
of important men and women.
Remind students that Judy
Chicago noticed that many
women had been left out of history, despite the fact that they
had achieved and contributed
much during their lifetimes.
Along with approximately 400
volunteers, she created her work,
The Dinner Party, to celebrate and remember these overlooked women. Explain that sometimes people who have
made great contributions to society go unnoticed because
of their gender, race, ethnicity, religion, or other factors.
Ask students to think of a woman they believe should be
Explore
Middle School
High School
Carrie Mae Weems and Roger Shimomura create visual
narratives, or images that tell stories. Each artist revisits
the past in a unique way. In her Constructing History
series, Weems has restaged specific events and left the
artifice of her staging exposed. Her photographs include
elements of the studio, like
lights and backdrops, which
are usually hidden from the
viewer.
Shimomura’s American
Diary series depicts the art-
ist’s interpretations of his
grandmother’s diary entries.
Here, the images do not rep-
licate specific moments, but showcase general scenes
from daily life. Ask students to consider how Carrie Mae
Weems and Roger Shimomura’s methods differ, and how
their approaches affect the way we view their work.
“I am trying to make art that
relates to the deepest and most
mythic concerns of humankind and
I believe that, at this moment of
history, feminism is humanism.”
