Brooklyn Public Library

At this time last year, I was in New York attending the Readers Studio tarot conference. I went a day early so I could go to the Brooklyn Museum to see Judy Chicago's masterpiece of feminist art, The Dinner Party. Walking around the neighbourhood afterwards, I discovered the Brooklyn Public Library down the street, with its absolutely stunning entranceway:

The huge bronze doors of the Library are decorated with gilded representations of characters from literature and mythology:

The two gigantic side pillars are similarly decorated. Isn't the Goddess Athena magnificent? I assume the huge snake at her feet is the Python of Delphi.

This entranceway is the most interesting thing about the building, both inside and out. I believe the original plans for the Library were much more grandiose but funding issues resulted in a plainer building being constructed. But that wonderful entranceway makes up for it!

The Dinner Party (Part 2)

A couple of months ago, I attended the Readers Studio tarot conference in New York. While there, I made a pilgrimage to the Brooklyn Museum to see The Dinner Party. It was everything I dreamed it would be! The installation is impressively, almost overwhelmingly, large. Everything about the display is exquisite. I spent at least two hours utterly absorbed by it.

And the women were there, what a price they had paid
To be at that table so finely displayed
And now I can see at last
The past is before me and the women are there

--from Judy Fjell's song, The Dinner Party

This iconic work of art has accomplished so many things for women. The Dinner Party helped to give women our "rightful place at the table" by acknowledging our place in history. It was one of the first public showcases of women's re-emerging consciousness of the Divine Feminine and the Goddess. The Dinner Party also rejoiced in glorious vulva imagery which, unlike phallic imagery, was rarely portrayed as art in the male-centred Western tradition. And last but not least, The Dinner Party successfully challenged the Art Establishment's dogma that embroidery, ceramics and fibre arts (the traditional media of female artistic expression) were mere "handicrafts" deemed unsuitable for recognition or display as "art."

The Dinner Party is truly one of the twentieth century's great works of art. I am so glad to have finally seen it in person! But the next best way to see it is through the magick of the internet. The Brooklyn Museum has a fabulous website devoted to The Dinner Party, including a virtual tour, close-ups of every place setting and biographies of every honoree at the table. Check it out here!

The Dinner Party (Part 1)

I have long been an admirer of the American feminist artist, Judy Chicago (pictured above). In the late 1970s, she created her most famous work, The Dinner Party. It consists of a huge, triangular, ceremonial banquet table with 39 place settings. Each place setting honours a woman, queen or goddess from various historical eras. The installation is rich with embroidery and other needlework and each place setting features a magnificent ceramic plate capturing the essence of the honoree.

The Dinner Party toured North America for the first few years after it was created. In the early 1980s it made one stop in Western Canada, in Calgary. I know many women who travelled great distances to see it, often from one or two provinces away. My Rare One was among those lucky women who saw The Dinner Party at that time. But unfortunately, I was not able to attend the exhibit.

When the tour of The Dinner Party was over, no art gallery or museum in the United States would agree to put it on permanent display. This refusal to provide exhibit space forced Judy Chicago to box up The Dinner Party and store it in a warehouse for nearly two decades. The Art Establishment's scandalous treatment of The Dinner Party caused great resentment among feminists.

Finally, about 5 years ago, the Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation was able to create the Centre for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum in New York, specifically for the purpose of putting The Dinner Party on permanent display.

Tomorrow's post: my pilgrimage to see The Dinner Party!