Suzanne Lacy facts for kids

Suzanne Lacy (born 1945) is an American artist, teacher, writer, and professor. She teaches at the USC Roski School of Art and Design. She creates art using many different ways, like installations, videos, performances, and public art. She also makes photographs and art books.

Suzanne Lacy focuses on important social topics and city problems in her art. She once worked with Jerry Brown, who was the mayor of Oakland, California, on education. She also helped guide art projects for the city as an arts commissioner. She has created many learning programs, starting when she taught performance art at the Feminist Studio Workshop in Los Angeles.

Early Life and Education

Suzanne Lacy became interested in feminism (the idea that women should have equal rights) in the late 1960s. In 1969, she went to California State University in Fresno to study psychology. There, she and another student, Faith Wilding, started the first feminist group on campus. This group helped women share their experiences and feelings.

In 1970, Lacy joined Judy Chicago's Feminist Art Program. The 1970s were a time when Lacy continued to explore who people are and the social conditions around them through her art.

Performance Art Projects

Suzanne Lacy is well-known for her performance art. This type of art involves the artist using their body and actions to create a live experience for an audience.

Ablutions (1972)

In 1972, Lacy worked with three other women: Judy Chicago, Sandra Orgel, and Aviva Rahmani. They created a performance art piece called Ablutions. This performance was done in a studio in California. It is seen as a very important art performance for feminism.

Inevitable Associations (1976)

When the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles was being fixed up in 1976, Suzanne Lacy got an idea for her performance art piece, Inevitable Associations. The hotel's ads compared it to an old woman, saying "There May Be Life in the Old Girl Yet." This made Lacy think about how society views older women. Throughout her career, Lacy wanted to show that older women are important and visible. She did this in other performances like Whisper, the Waves, the Wind (1984) and Crystal Quilt (1987).

The Inevitable Associations performance happened over two days in the hotel lobby. On the first day, a makeup artist publicly changed Lacy's appearance to make her look like an old woman. This took almost three hours. While this was happening, helpers gave out flyers about the hotel's renovation and cosmetic surgery. Slowly, many older women dressed in black came into the lobby and sat across from Lacy. At first, people barely noticed them. But soon, there were so many older women that everyone in the lobby saw them. Once Lacy's makeup was done, the group of older women quietly dressed her in black clothes.

On the second day, three older women sat in red chairs in the lobby. They told stories about their lives after age 60 and how aging affected them. They shared these stories with people walking by and anyone who stopped to listen. Lacy's goal was to make people aware that women can feel invisible as they get older and no longer fit into society's beauty standards. Inevitable Associations was a very important moment in Lacy's career. It was the first time she took her performance art out into a public space.

Three Weeks in May (1977)

In 1977, Lacy and her friend Leslie Labowitz combined performance art with activism. They created Three Weeks in May. This project aimed to raise awareness about violence against women.

In Mourning and In Rage (1977)

Lacy and Labowitz worked with other artists in 1977 to create In Mourning and In Rage. This was a large public protest performance. It started when a group of very tall women, made taller by huge black headpieces, arrived at City Hall in a hearse. A line of cars filled with women in black followed them. The performers got out and formed a circle in front of City Hall steps. Above them was a banner that said, "In memory of our sisters, women fight back."

The artists planned the performance to get the attention of TV news. They successfully got news coverage, using the media to spread their message. This helped their art performance reach many more people than just art lovers. People from the Woman's Building, the City Council, and families of victims joined the feminist community. They created a public event to show both anger and sadness.

Lacy and Labowitz also started ARIADNE: A Social Art Network. This group works together to create art for communities and offer learning chances.

Whisper, the Waves, the Wind (1984)

Whisper, the Waves, the Wind was created with Sharon Allen in 1984. It was the final event of the Whisper Project. This project was a year-long series of events that focused on the special needs of older women.

Lacy said she was interested in the stories and ideas around older women. She wanted to help them overcome unfair ideas and gain back their power in society. She felt the sea was a perfect setting because its cycles show continuity. She hoped people would feel a sense of ongoing strength, like a matriarchal (female-led) consciousness.

On the day of the performance, 154 older women (aged 65 to 99) walked slowly down a staircase to a large beach. They were from different backgrounds and all wore white. They sat in groups of four at white tables on two beaches. They talked about important topics like aging, preparing for death, loss, and the women's movement. They also shared advice for younger women. The audience watched and listened from cliffs above the beach. They could hear the women's voices through speakers.

Crystal Quilt (1987)

On Mother's Day, May 10, 1987, Lacy directed Crystal Quilt. This was a follow-up to Whisper, the Waves, the Wind. This time, the performance was indoors in a large open space in the IDS Center skyscraper in Minneapolis.

The Crystal Quilt was one of Lacy's most ambitious projects in the 1980s. It involved 430 older women. The performance was filmed and shown live on PBS. The women talked about their lives as they gathered to create a huge, quilt-shaped pattern on the floor. Over 3,000 people came to watch.

Lacy believes her art cannot be exactly repeated because it responds to specific times and places. However, since many social issues are still important, she sometimes "re-thinks" her works in new ways. She considers if the issue still matters and how new ideas might change the work.

Silver Action (2013)

Like Crystal Quilt, Silver Action also focused on older women. This performance was created for the opening of The Tanks performance space at Tate Modern in London in February 2013. Four hundred women over 60 discussed their past and future activism for women's rights. They also talked about how their views had changed as they got older.

The Oakland Projects (1991-2001)

Between 1991 and 2001, Lacy created The Oakland Projects. This was a community art project with young people, teachers, artists, and media makers. The goal was to get young people in Oakland, California, to talk about police brutality, unfairness in society, education, and other social issues. The young people didn't "perform" in a traditional way. Instead, they showed the social stereotypes they saw in their community.

The Roof is On Fire (1993–1994) was a two-year project within The Oakland Projects. Lacy and her helpers taught media skills to Oakland youth. They also held a one-night performance. More than 200 young people had conversations in cars about race, social class, gender, and inequality. People watching were asked to listen to these conversations. Students trained in media made a documentary about the performance, which was also covered by major news channels.

Between the Door and the Street (2013)

Between the Door and the Street, Suzanne Lacy, Installation at the Brooklyn Museum, 2013

In October 2013, Lacy organized conversations among women on the front steps of houses in Brooklyn, New York. This was for her Between the Door and the Street Project. The Brooklyn Museum helped sponsor this event. Three hundred sixty women talked about gender issues, and people walking by could listen in.

Writing and Publishing

In 1977, Suzanne Lacy became part of the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP). This is a group that helps women communicate more and connects the public with media created by women.

She edited a book called Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art. This book is a collection of essays about how performance art affects public spaces. She has also written many articles about performance art.

Lacy often writes about her own work. She describes how she plans, creates, and thinks about her art. She supports art that helps society and explores how art and social change are connected. She also questions the differences between "high art" and art that everyone can take part in. Her book, Leaving Art: Writings on Performance, Politics, and and Publics 1974-2007, brings together thirty of her texts. It shows how feminist, conceptual, and performance art have grown over the years.

Teaching and Academia

Suzanne Lacy has held several important jobs at art schools. She was the Dean of Fine Arts at California College of the Arts (CCA) from 1987 to 1997. She also helped start California State University, Monterey Bay and was the first director of its Center for Fine Art and Public Life.

From 2002 to 2006, she was the Chair of Fine Arts at Otis College of Art and Design. In 2007, she created a new Master of Fine Arts program there called Public Practice. As of 2018, she is a professor of art at the USC Roski School of Art and Design at the University of Southern California.

Awards and Recognition

Suzanne Lacy has won many awards and fellowships. These include awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Creative Capital Emerging Fields Award. In 2009, she was the first person to receive the Public Art Dialogue Annual Award.

In 2010, she received the Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement from the College Art Association. In 2012, she got the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women's Caucus for Art. She also received an A Blade of Grass fellowship in 2015.

Collections

Suzanne Lacy's art is part of important collections. The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles owns some of her work. The Tate Modern in London owns The Crystal Quilt. In 2012, the Hammer Museum bought Three Weeks in May (1977).

Images for kids

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  Between the Door and the Street, Suzanne Lacy, Installation at the Brooklyn Museum, 2013