HIU Loans Judy Chicago Artwork to Wadsworth Atheneum for Display

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A large textile piece by famed feminist artist Judy Chicago, which was given to Hartford International University in 1988, is now on display in the contemporary galleries of the Wadsworth Atheneum in downtown Hartford.

The piece is part of a large group of textiles that made up The Birth Project, which celebrates women and their ability to give birth. The HIU textile is called Guided by the Goddess. Created in 1983, it is made from sprayed fabric paint, embroidery, and pulled thread work on fabric and mounted in a plexiglass box.

When Chicago created The Birth Project, she enlisted more than 150 needleworkers around the country to assist with the dozens of pieces she created. Expert needleworker Marjorie Smith worked on Guided by the Goddess after Chicago spray-painted the fabric. 

According to the Wadsworth, "the work illustrates Chicago's feminist approach to remaking the art historical canon in the way she celebrates women's lives experiences in her imagery as well as with her collaborative art process." 

Emerita Professor Miriam Therese Winter remembers hearing about Chicago's work in the mid-1980s and going to see several pieces from The Birth Project on display at Trinity College. She then contacted Chicago and asked if she could display some of The Birth Project works during an HIU weekend for women called "Women, Word, and the Church." Chicago agreed and sent several pieces.

"This was the very first public event for women by women that occurred several years after I arrived in Hartford," Professor Winter said. "It was a weekend filled with what women were doing in art, music, public life, politics, and within religious institutions. It had music, dance, and artwork on the white walls of the chapel and around the building."

The Birth Project pieces, after touring more than 100 venues in the early and mid 1980s, were then donated to a variety of institutions.

"They asked if we would be willing to receive Guided by the Goddess, and I said yes," Professor Winter said. "And we've had it ever since."

The Wadsworth Atheneum helped HIU to have the piece properly framed and protected, and it has been on display at HIU for 34 years. The loan to the Wadsworth will allow an additional audience to view the famed piece before it returns to HIU.

"We so delighted to offer it for that space," she said. 

For more information on visiting Guided by the Goddess, go to https://www.thewadsworth.org/visit/