Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art

The Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art is a dedicated exhibition and study space located on the fourth floor of the Brooklyn Museum in New York City. Established in 2007, it was the first public museum space of its kind in the United States devoted to feminist art. The Center was founded by Elizabeth A. Sackler, a philanthropist, art collector, and historian, with support from the Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation. Its mission is to create an interactive environment that raises awareness and educates visitors about feminism's impact on culture, while serving as a bridge between feminist art, theory, and activism. Since its opening, the Center has been the permanent home of Judy Chicago's landmark 1979 installation The Dinner Party, one of the most iconic works of feminist art.

The Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art opened on March 23, 2007, at the Brooklyn Museum. Elizabeth A. Sackler, the Center's namesake and founder, conceived the institution as both a museum and a study center where art would be examined from a feminist perspective. The Center was financed by the Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation and designed by New York architect Susan T. Rodriguez, a partner in Ennead Architects. From its inception, the Center aimed to link feminist art, theory, and activism, positioning itself as a platform for advocacy on women's issues. The opening exhibition, "Global Feminisms," curated by Maura Reilly and Linda Nochlin, was the first international exhibition dedicated exclusively to feminist art from 1990 to the present. In March 2012, the Center celebrated its fifth anniversary by inaugurating the Sackler Center First Awards, an annual honor conceived by Elizabeth Sackler for women who have broken gender barriers in their respective fields. The Brooklyn Museum marked the Center's tenth anniversary in October 2016 with "A Year of Yes: Reimagining Feminism," a series of ten exhibitions devoted to feminist artists and their significance in art history over the previous fifty years.

The Center's holdings and programming encompass a wide range of feminist artistic production from the 1960s to the present. Its collection and exhibition program address diverse media and methodologies, including ceramics, video, conceptual art, printmaking, and installation. The Center maintains two changing exhibition galleries in addition to its permanent installation, allowing for rotating presentations that explore various themes in feminist art history and contemporary practice. Its programming has encompassed historical surveys, solo exhibitions of established and emerging artists, and thematic shows examining intersections of gender with race, politics, and labor. The Center also supports scholarly research through its study center and has developed the Feminist Art Base, a digital database of artists whose work reflects feminist ideas and concerns. This resource includes profiles with biographies, CVs, and exemplary works, and is actively maintained with contributions from artists worldwide.

The centerpiece of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art is Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party (1974-1979), which has been on permanent display since the Center's opening. The installation features a massive triangular table with 39 place settings, each dedicated to a significant woman from Western history or mythology. Each setting includes hand-painted porcelain plates, ceramic utensils, and chalices on embroidered runners with napkins. The Heritage Floor beneath the table bears the names of 999 additional women in gold script on white triangular tiles. The work was begun by Chicago in 1974 and completed in 1979. Beyond The Dinner Party, the Center has presented numerous significant exhibitions, including "Global Feminisms" (2007), "Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, 1958-1968" (2010-2011), "Kiki Smith: Sojourn" (2010), "Wangechi Mutu: A Fantastic Journey" (2013-2014), "We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965-85" (2017), and "Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960-1985" (2018). The Sackler Center First Awards have honored recipients including Sandra Day O'Connor, Toni Morrison, Linda Nochlin, Julie Taymor, Anita Hill, Miss Piggy, and Angela Davis.

The Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art occupies 8,300 square feet (770 m2) on the fourth floor of the Brooklyn Museum. The space was conceived and developed by architect Susan T. Rodriguez. The gallery housing The Dinner Party is the architectural focal point, enclosed in large, canting glass walls that offer visitors their first view of Chicago's work. The installation is surrounded by a series of additional galleries, including two changing exhibition spaces. The Center also contains a study center that can be transformed from an academic forum into a multimedia gallery as needed, accomplished through a large pivoting wall. The Forum serves as a venue for public programs and advocacy on women's issues. The Council for Feminist Art, a membership group, supports the Center's ongoing educational programming and activities.

The Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art is located within the Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, New York, United States. As part of the Brooklyn Museum, it operates under the museum's ownership and access policies. The Center is situated on the museum's fourth floor and is accessible to the general public during regular museum hours. Its website is maintained at https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/. The Center continues to function as an active exhibition space, study center, and platform for feminist art and discourse, with its permanent installation of The Dinner Party serving as a continuous draw for visitors. The Feminist Art Base remains available as a digital resource for researchers interested in feminist art from the 1960s to the early 2000s.