Feminist artistic collaboration grew out of the consciousness-raising practices that began in the late 1960s and the feminist education processes initiated in the 1970s. Conceiving of art as creative social action, women artists and non-artists came together to organize protests, to enact performances, to plan and build visual arts monuments and to found institutions that embodied, and continue to embody, what New York painter Miriam Schapiro called ‘the gold of sisterhood’. Because so many of the feminist collaborations of the late 20th century have been grassroots-initiated projects, and because the both the art market and the dominant art historical discourse continue to favour individual male genius over group efforts, this essay is by force partial and fragmentary. Nonetheless even this partial account reveals the remarkably exciting and innovative nature of feminist artistic collaboration.
Betty Ann Brown