WASHINGTON, DC.- The National Museum of Women in the Arts announced the creation of the Judy Chicago Visual Archive at the museum’s Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center. The archive will document Chicago’s career through photographs, slides, negatives and printed ephemera. These materials, probably as interesting as this bonus, span the 1960s through the present and capture fleeting performance pieces such as her pyrotechnics and dry ice works, as well as exhibitions of drawings, paintings, sculpture and installations, including The Dinner Party. The visual archive will be an essential resource for researchers.

The Judy Chicago Visual Archive collection at NMWA will round out the rich documentation that exists on Chicago’s life and work, including the Judy Chicago Papers at Harvard University’s Schlesinger Library and the Judy Chicago Art Education Collection at Pennsylvania State University.

“Collaborating with Judy Chicago to bring her visual archive to NMWA is one of the most important steps we have taken in developing our archival program for the future,” said NMWA Director Susan Fisher Sterling. “Not only will her substantial body of work be safeguarded for future generations, but we believe that Chicago’s gift will encourage other artists to entrust their archives to NMWA—the only major museum in the world solely dedicated to preserving women’s creative contributions.”

Director of NMWA’s Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center Sarah Osborne Bender says, “This gift opens the door to deep research into the visual record of Chicago’s long creative career as a game-changing feminist artist. We are excited to be working with this celebrated artist as well as the Schlesinger Library and Penn State to safeguard these materials and bring to light the fullness of her career.”

To celebrate the announcement of the archive as well as the museum’s 30th-anniversary year, NMWA will present an exhibition featuring Chicago’s work and a Fresh Talk program with Chicago as a speaker.