the Woman's Building

Current and Recent Projects

Animating the Archives: the Woman's Building
Exhibition at Avenue 50 Studio: May 13 (Opening) through June 3 (Closing), 2017<
Click here for more information.

Metabolic Studio Supports the Woman’s Building to Preserve Feminist Art History

From December 2016 through April 1, 2017, Metabolic Studio invites feminist artists who formerly participated at the Woman’s Building to engage in "Animating the Archives: the Woman’s Building in residence at Metabolic Studio." Women artists may bring their slides, photos, videos and paper files and work with professional archivists to organize their collections and make determinations about where to donate or or how to preserve them. Metabolic Studio is situated right next door to the former Spring Street location of the Woman’s Building in downtown Los Angeles. Support from Metabolic Studio also assisted the Woman's Building to update its website.

The Metabolic Studio is led by Lauren Bon, artist and a Director of the Annenberg Foundation. Derived from the Greek word for change, "metabolism" is the process that transforms nutrients into energy and matter. Lauren Bon's studio practice includes a team of individuals who work together across a range of investigative platforms, transforming resources into energy, actions and outcomes.

From its founding in 1973 to its closing in 1991, the Woman’s Building was one of the most important sites in the world for supporting, nurturing and promoting the artistic achievements of women. Its exhibitions, performances, readings, lectures, public projects and educational programs inspired and fostered generations of women artists, writers, performers and scholars. For feminists throughout Los Angeles, across the country and around the world, the Woman’s Building was a potent symbol of women’s creative community.

Since suspending its public programs, its Board of Directors has concerned itself with preserving the legacy of the Woman’s Building: conducting an extensive oral history project, creating an online slide archive, publishing a number of books and, in 2011, mounting a major exhibition, “Doin’ It in Public,” at Otis College of Art and Design as part of the Getty-sponsored Pacific Standard Time.

Getty Pacific Standard Time Project: Otis Exhibition October 1, 2011 - February 26, 2012

"Doin' It in Public: Feminism and Art at the Woman's Building" comprises an exhibition, two scholarly publications, and a series of public events that document, contextualize and pay tribute to the groundbreaking work of feminist artists and art cooperatives that were centered in and around the Los Angeles Woman's Building (downtown L.A.) in the 1970s and 1980s. "Doin' It In Public" is part of "Pacific Standard Time: Art in LA 1945-1980", an unprecedented collaboration, initiated by the Getty, that brings together more than sixty cultural institutions from across Southern California for six months beginning October 2011 to tell the story of the birth of the L.A. art scene. "Pacific Standard Time" is an initiative of the Getty. "Doin' It in Public: Feminism and Art" at the Woman's Building took place October 1, 2011 - February 26, 2012, at the Ben Maltz Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design, curated by Meg Linton and Sue Maberry. See Publications for further information.