Digital Archive

Women in the Arts Foundation

Entity type: Organization

Founded in 1971 by artists, writers and other art world professionals meeting in lower Manhattan during a time of great unrest and creative ferment, Women in the Arts quickly grew into a national organization. It incorporated in 1973 as Women in the Arts Foundation, Inc. (WIA). Throughout its history, WIA has proved to be adaptable and creative in its ongoing work to change outdated concepts and attitudes about women as professional artists.

Heresies Collective

Entity type: Organization

The Heresies Collective was founded in 1976 in New York City, by a group of feminist political artists. The group sought to, among other goals, examine art from a feminist and political perspective. In addition to a variety of actions and cultural output, the collective was responsible for the overseeing the publication of the journal Heresies: A feminist publican on art and politics, which was published from 1977 until 1993.

"Where We At" Black Women Artists, Inc. (WWA)

Entity type: Organization

"Where We At" Black Women Artists, Inc. (WWA) was a collective of Black women artists affiliated with the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. It included artists such as Dindga McCannon, Kay Brown, Faith Ringgold, Carol Blank, Jerri Crooks, Charlotte Kâ (Richardson), and Gylbert Coker. Where We At was formed in the spring of 1971, in the wake of an exhibition of the same name organized by 14 Black women artists at the Acts of Art Gallery in Greenwich Village. Themes such as the unity of the Black family, Black female independence and embodiment, Black male-female relationships, contemporary social conditions, and African traditions were central to the work of the WWA artists. The group was intended to serve as a source of empowerment for African-American women, providing a means for them to control their self-representation and to explore issues of Black women's sensibility and aesthetics. Like AfriCobra, a Chicago-based Black Arts group, the WWA was active in fostering art within the African-American community and using it as a tool of awareness and liberation. The group organized workshops in schools, jails and prisons, hospitals, and cultural centers, as well as art classes for youth in their communities.   This biography is from Wikipedia under an Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License.

Addresses Project

Entity type: Organization

ADDRESSES PROJECT investigates lesbian and queer space and memory in New York City from the early 1900s to the present day through map-making, oral history interviews, ephemera and portraiture. The purpose of this project is to explore the history of the Gay Rights Movement (and it’s intersections with Civil Rights and Women’s Rights), shifts in identity building (and shedding) and the sociopolitical conditions of New York City from a lesbian and queer perspective. The mission of the ADDRESSES PROJECT is to offer lesbian and queer-identified individuals a multi-disciplinary platform through which to access a place-based heritage as well as intergenerational community building. The map component of the ADDRESSES PROJECT consists of lesbian and queer gathering locations. Each map entry includes a photograph of the site as it appears now, it’s address or approximate location and as much historical information as can be gathered about it while it served its lesbian and queer clientele. The map has been formed primarily through memory and community legend. Gwen Shockey created the Addresses Project in 2016. She recorded all of the oral histories and digitized the ephemera. Riya Lerner, Addresses Project collaborator, is the artist of the photographs. 

BETTY

Entity type: Organization

Pen + Brush

Entity type: Organization

Pen + Brush is a 129-year-old publicly supported not-for-profit fighting for gender equity in the arts. P+B provides a platform to showcase the work of women, non-binary and female-identified transgender artists and writers to a broader audience with the ultimate goal of effecting real change within the marketplace. Source

Plan C

Entity type: Organization

Hunter College

Entity type: Organization

Crazy Nanny's

Entity type: Organization

Crazy Nanny’s was a lesbian bar in New York City that ran from 1991-2004. Located on 21 7th Ave, the bar spanned two floors allowing for large events. Crazy Nanny's drew a racially diverse crowd and was a space for the larger LGBT community to gather together.

Cubbyhole Bar

Entity type: Organization

The bar now known as Cubbyhole dates back to 1987 when it was owned and operated by Tanya Saunders and Debbie Fierro as a refuge for all comers under the name DT's Fat Cat. It has remained both a lesbian and queer friendly location throughout its history as bar patronage shifted throughout New York City's LGBTQ+ community. In 1994 Saunders bought the name Cubbyhole from the owner of an already-closed lesbian bar, and the bar has operated under that name since.It is owned and operated by Lisa Menichino who had been a bar-tender under Saunders' ownership. Cubbyhole is at 281 W. 12th Street, the same location where Saunders operated DT's Fat Cat. The former Cubby Hole was located in what is now Henrietta Hudson. While there was some concern in early 2022 when the bar closed for renovation, it reopened in spring.

Downtown Community School

Entity type: Organization

The Downtown Community School was an American experimental, cooperative, racially integrated school located at 235 East 11th Street in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, New York. The school was founded in 1944 and waa closed in 1971.[1] Its mission was described as being to train children to “live and work together in understanding.”[2] This biography is from Wikipedia under an Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License.

FEMINIST

Entity type: Organization

FEMINIST is a women-led social-first digital platform and collective that exists to actualize the intersectional feminist movement through the amplification of a diverse network of change-makers and creators. Their mission is to create a more just and equitable future for all. FEMINIST seeks to amplify, educate, inform and inspire. FEMINIST was co-founded by Blair Imani, Aisha Becker-Burrowes and Ky Polanco. 

Iris Films

Entity type: Organization

Iris Films was founded in 1975 by a group of feminist filmmakers to produce and distribute films that creatively address social and cultural issues. Iris has created the award-winning films, In the Best Interests of the Children, We All Have Our Reasons, Skin Deep, the widely acclaimed documentary about race relations on college campuses in the United States, Long Night’s Journey Into Day, the Sundance award winning, Academy® nominated film about South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and most recently, One Vote, a short video about women and voting in the United States. Iris Films productions have been used by activists, diversity and multi-cultural trainers, teachers, students and community groups to facilitate discussions about reconciliation, tolerance, transitional justice, racism, affirmative action, human rights, and civil rights.

A.I.R. Gallery

Entity type: Organization

A.I.R. Gallery (Artists in Residence) is the first all-female artists cooperative gallery in the United States. It was founded in 1972 with the objective of providing a professional and permanent exhibition space for women artists during a time in which the works shown at commercial galleries in New York City were almost exclusively by male artists. A.I.R. is a not-for-profit, self-underwritten arts organization with a board of directors made up of its New York-based artists. The gallery was initially located in SoHo at 97 Wooster Street and on 111 Front Street in the DUMBO neighborhood of Brooklyn until 2015. In May 2015, A.I.R. Gallery moved to its current location at 155 Plymouth St, Brooklyn, NY 11201.

Gay Community News

Entity type: Organization

Gay Community News was an American weekly newspaper published in Boston, Massachusetts from 1973 to 1999. Designed as a resource for the LGBT community, the newspaper reported a wide variety of gay and lesbian-related news. Founded as a collectively-run, local newsletter, early in the struggle for gay liberation, it was soon expanded into a major newspaper with an international readership. The publication saw itself as part an important vehicle for debating gay rights, feminism, antiracism, multiculturalism, class struggle, prisoners' rights, AIDS, and other causes. The newspaper's influence was such that it enjoyed a "national reach that was considered the movement's 'paper of record' throughout the '70s, and whose alumni at one point occupied so many leadership roles around the country that they were called the 'GCN mafia'". This biography is from Wikipedia under an Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License.

Girls in the Nose

Entity type: Organization

Girls in the Nose started in Austin, Texas in 1985. In 1981 I [Kay Turner] met a young performer named Gretchen Phillips and she and I started hanging out and listening to records together and we were just music nerds and she played guitar and then my friend Betsy Peterson, a folklorist who moved to Austin, joined.

Global Fund for Women

Entity type: Organization

Partner

Great Goddess Collective

Entity type: Organization

The Great Goddess Collective was made up of: Mary Albanese, Martha Alsup, Tracy Boyd, Janet Culbetson, Rosemary Dudley, Mary Beth Edelson, Gail Feinstein, Deborah Freedman, Gina Foglia, Donna Henes, Anne Healy, Buffie Johnson, Diane Levin, Grace Shinell, Merlin Stone, Carolee Thea, Susan Turner, and Mierle Laderman Ukeles. The collective explored ideas surrounding the Goddess and produced creative works. 

Henrietta Hudson

Entity type: Organization

On a rainy night in 1985, Lisa Cannistraci took refuge in a small bar in the west village. While chatting with the bartenders, she mentioned she was job hunting and was hired on the spot. After 5 years of working the bar, the original Cubby Hole closed and Lisa, along with Minnie Rivera, opened Henrietta Hudson. The bar was literally built by lesbians with donated boom boxes and labor and materials.  Since 1991, Hen’s has stood as a pillar in the community, activist space, and safe haven. While it is the longest running lesbian bar in the country, we are a Queer Human Bar. We embrace our entire community and seek to uplift everyone.

Identity House

Entity type: Organization

Identity House is an all-volunteer community that provides counseling services to support and encourage LGBTQ+ adults who are struggling with issues of sexuality, gender identity, alienation, relationships, and family. We’ve proudly served the New York metropolitan area since 1971.

Lady-Unique-Inclination-of-the-Night

Entity type: Organization

Lady-Unique-Inclination-of-the-Night was an American feminist periodical from 1976 until 1983. Founded and edited by Kay Turner, the journal primarily wrote on feminist art, history and performance with a particular focus on women's spirituality.[1]

Lavender Menace

Entity type: Organization

The Lavender Menace or revolution was an informal group of lesbian radical feminists formed to protest the exclusion of lesbians and their issues from the feminist movement at the Second Congress to Unite Women in New York City on May 1, 1970. Members included Karla Jay, Martha Shelley, Rita Mae Brown, Lois Hart, Barbara Love, Ellen Shumsky, Artemis March, Cynthia Funk, Linda Rhodes, Arlene Kushner, Ellen Broidy, and Michela Griffo, and were mostly members of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) and the National Organization for Women (NOW). The term "Lavender Menace" originated as a negative term for the association of lesbianism with the feminist movement, but it was later reclaimed as a positive term by lesbian feminists. The phrase "Lavender Menace" was reportedly first used in 1969 by Betty Friedan, president of The National Organization for Women (NOW), to describe the threat that she believed associations with lesbianism posed to NOW and the emerging women's movement.

Ms. Magazine

Entity type: Organization

Ms.Magazine

Entity type: Organization