The University of New Mexico’s Valencia campus houses the Through the Flower Library By and About Women, a collection of over 2000 donated books. Through the Flower continues to add to this collection which is available across New Mexico through inter-library loan.
Holder of the Judy Chicago: Dry Ice, Smoke, and Fireworks archive. The archive contains materials from Chicago’s extensive body of work with dry ice, colored smoke, and fireworks, manifested in 45 projects spanning from 1967 to the present. Objects include thousands of photographs, digital images, slides, 16 mm films, correspondence, drawings, maps, notes, maquettes, clothing and press materials. Also included are sets of prints made from archival and contemporary images of various works that can be leant out for exhibition.
In August of 2020, the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation acquired Judy Chicago's significant print archive. The Foundation will not only photograph, document, frame, and conserve the archive, but will make it available to scholars, curators and audiences worldwide, without charging exhibition fees. With an introduction by influential curator and artistic director of Serpentine Gallery in London Hans Ulrich Obrist, the Foundation will publish a catalog raisonne of the works in the archive.
Among the Library’s most important collections documenting second-wave feminism are the papers of Judy Chicago, providing a wealth of material for researchers in art history, women’s history, gender studies, and public policy. Especially interesting are materials pertaining to Chicago’s artworks, including the Birth Project, the Holocaust Project, and The Dinner Party. The library will also become the repository for all Through the Flower records and Through the Flower related historical material.
Penn State University has acquired one of the most important private collections of feminist art education, now housed in the University Archives in the Special Collections Library on campus as well as online. The Judy Chicago Art Education Collection is coordinated by Dr. Karen Keifer-Boyd, art education professor and theorist. Also overseen by Penn State is The Dinner Party Curriculum Project, created by a team of writers in collaboration with Judy Chicago and gifted by Through the Flower, and Participatory Art Pedagogy (informed by feminist principles), an analysis of Judy Chicago’s teaching methods by Dr. Karen Keifer-Boyd. Penn State submits an annual report to the Through the Flower Board on the use of this material and the use of Through the Flower donated funds in support of the Penn State collection. In addition, each year Penn State and the Board of Through the Flower review applicants to and award the Judy Chicago Art Education Award. This $1500 monetary award is funded by Through the Flower.
The Dinner Party is presented as the centerpiece around which the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum is organized. This permanent installation is enhanced by rotating Herstory Gallery exhibitions relating to the 1,038 women honored at the table. The Sackler Center is an exhibition and education center dedicated to feminist art: its past, present, and future.
A substantial portion of works from the Birth Project series, a collection of works designed and painted by Judy Chicago and created in collaboration with needleworkers from around the world, celebrating birth and creation, is owned by the Albuquerque Museum. The work can be viewed by curators, scholars, and students by appointment only with advanced notice.
Through a generous planned gift from the Cowan Family Foundation, the Museum of Arts and Design will acquire the cycle of tapestries designed by Chicago and woven by Audrey Cowan, her longtime collaborator and former Through the Flower Board Member. Included are works from the Holocaust Project, the Birth Project, and PowerPlay. Judy Chicago augmented this gift with preparatory materials. In 2011, the museum held an exhibition of these works, which provided a behind-the-scenes view of their unique creative process.
The National Museum of Women in the Arts is the only museum in the world dedicated exclusively to recognizing the contributions of women. The museum is currently working to assemble a representative collection of Chicago’s art. After her death, the museum will be the repository of her visual art archive, including slide files, card files and computerized data base which will provide documentation of her long career. Material specifically gifted from Through the Flower includes sketches, preparatory material, and historic images related to the creation of The Dinner Party; sketches and preparatory material, slides, photographs, and needlework samples from the Birth Project; and didactic and documentation panels from The Dinner Party, and Resolutions: A Stitch in Time.
A collection of Judy Chicago’s art that focuses on work created in New Mexico is being assembled at the New Mexico Museum of Art.
In 2013, Through the Flower gifted the International Honor Quilt (IHQ) project to the University and the Hite Art Institute. The project, initiated by Judy Chicago in 1980, and eventually consisting of over 500 quilts honoring women or groups of the quiltmaker’s choice, composed an artistic history and social commentary of women. The Hite Art Institute staff and graduate students expanded the documentation of the quilts and registrarial materials originally compiled by Dr. Marilee Schmit Nason into a searchable online database that is to be used for educational purposes and be permanently available for research and study. International quilt expert Shelly Zegart, who served as a catalyst for the placement of the IHQ, chairs the committee overseeing the integration and use of the IHQ with the University. A Through the Flower Board Member serves on the IHQ Governance Committee with oversees the care and use of this work.
Through their Photo Legacy Project, the New Mexico History Museum will house the archives of photographer, Donald Woodman.