Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A revered teacher and the most influential feminist artist of our time, Judy Chicago provides an autobiographical look at higher education in art, a must-read for aspiring artists and educators in studio art programs. How should women--and men--be prepared for a career in today's art world? For more than a decade, Judy Chicago has been formulating a critique of studio art education, in colleges or art schools, based upon observation, study, and, most importantly, her own teaching experiences, which have taken her from prestigious universities to regional colleges, and across the country from Cal Poly Pomona to Duke University and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Founder of the first program dedicated to feminist art, at California State University, Fresno, in 1970, she went on to initiate the Feminist Art Program at California Institute of the Arts with artist Miriam Schapiro, the first program at a major art school to specifically address the needs of female art students. Creator of the celebrated The Dinner Party, a monumental art installation now on permanent display at the Brooklyn Museum, Chicago reviews her own art education, in the 1960s, when she overcame sexist obstacles to beginning a career as an artist and became recognized as one of the key figures in the dynamic California art scene of that decade. She reviews the present-day situation of young people aspiring to become artists and uncovers the persistence of a bias against women and other minorities in studio art education. Far from a dry educational treatise, Institutional Time is heartfelt, and highly personal: a book that has the earmarks of a classic in arts education.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

This feminist artist-author's tangential, personal storytelling often buries important timely, provocative topics that she is clearly passionate about: her pedagogical use of circle discussion, teaching content over technique, and hot topics such as student debt and whether art grads will find art jobs (highly unlikely). Her colloquial tone, with anecdotal and at times distracting segues, prevent the book's cohesion. While organized into eight thematic chapters, the book feels more like a casual memoir than a focused academic piece. It serves to document the author's many higher-ed feminist projects, then (1970s) and now (e.g., partnering with Kutztown University art educators), and this is the strong point. The appendixes will be useful in feminism study as well. The color images are of surprisingly poor quality yet provide supportive documentation and context. Verdict Collectors and fans of Chicago's artworks (Dinner Party) and writings (Beyond the Flower) will welcome this strongly charged, feminist-oriented, eclectic narrative; many will need to keep in mind a more balanced, less affected academic discussion on the current state of the arts in higher education curricula.-Marianne Laino Sade, Maryland Inst. Coll. of Art Lib., Baltimore (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

In this characteristically tenacious book, feminist artist and educator Chicago, best known for her 1979 installation "The Dinner Party" (now permanently installed at the Brooklyn Museum), shares her struggles and successes as an art instructor-at CalArts (where she helped establish the feminist art program), Indiana University, Duke, Western Kentucky, Vanderbilt, and elsewhere-and boldly calls for a systematic restructuring of studio art programs, which she finds "deficient, dishonest, and lacking in standards," as well as androcentric. Women's enrollment surpasses men's, but they are especially disadvantaged and less likely to succeed because the "curriculum as it exists today is biased against women." Chicago holds up her pedagogical methods as potential models for reforms, particularly her emphasis on students locating personal content (when technique usually takes precedence), which helps women and students outside the cultural mainstream. Chicago's critiques and proposals are powerful conversation-starters, presented earnestly and without academic jargon. She contends, for example, that studio art educators should have teaching credentials; that students should be exposed to a greater variety of art practices and practitioners, such as muralists and community-based artists; women's studies should be fully integrated into the core curriculum; and, finally, "artists might consider joining forces to combat an art system that is bad for art and toxic for artists." Disillusioned students and educators will benefit from this rousing book. 50 color illus. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

CHOICE Review

Judy Chicago, the artist who created The Dinner Party (1974-79), which she describes as "a symbolic history of women in Western Civilization," here documents her work as a teacher of studio art in US colleges and universities. Over five decades, she has taught courses that resulted in very well-received exhibitions. She instituted a pedagogy particularly responsive to the concerns of women artists. Rather than teaching techniques, she begins with students sitting in a circle giving "self-presentations." She believes that this "circle-based pedagogy helps students discover that their life experiences can provide meaningful content for their art." In a diary-like style, Chicago describes good and bad teaching experiences, as well as things learned. Importantly, her teaching methods have been discussed and used by K-12 art educators--see Marilyn Stewart and Sydney Walker's Rethinking Curriculum in Art (2005), and Martin Rosenberg and Frances Thurber's Gender Matters in Art Education (2007). However, Chicago asserts that they have not been used by studio art teachers in higher education. In 2011, Chicago's papers, "The Judy Chicago Art Education Collection," were placed in the Special Collections Library of Penn State University. Along with this book, they will provide valuable stimulus for discussion on how art is taught. --Nancy M. Lambert, University of South Carolina Upstate

Author notes provided by Syndetics

A preeminent artist, author, feminist, and educator, Judy Chicago's work and life have been devoted to expanding women's presence in the arts and in art history. Her art is frequently exhibited in the United States and internationally. The Dinner Party is her best-known work, a celebration of women's history that is a permanent installation at the Brooklyn Museum's Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art.