Judy Chicago, "The Dinner Party"

Judy Chicago is the mistressmind and co-coordinator of The Diner Party feminist art installation. It took six years and $250,000.00 to see this project through to completion. Production began in 1974 with Judy Chicago and ended in 1979 with 400 contributing artists, most of who were women (some men) and volunteers.

This project first exhibited in 1979; despite the opposition it met with in the art world it toured 16 venues in 6 countries on 3 continents with approximately 1 million viewers. In 2007 The Dinner Party moved into its permanent exhibition at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Art Center for Feminist Art in the Brooklyn Museum of New York.

Each place setting is a representation of 39 mythical and historical famous women. The equilateral triangular table measures forty-eight feet on each side and is set with a napkin, utensils, a glass or goblet and a plate placed on a table runner embroidered with the woman’s name and images or symbols relating to her accomplishments. Many of the plates feature a butterfly or flower like sculpture symbolizing a vulva.

The Dinner Party is a celebration of traditional female accomplishments such as textile arts and china painting. This collaborated feminist art installation has elevated female achievement in Western History to epic scale usually reserved for men. 

To learn more about "The Dinner Party" click on image:  
The Dinner Party: From Creation to Preservation