Airing Out Our Drawers: 50-ish Years of CalArts’ History and Creativity from the Library and Institute Archives: CalArts Publications

From Fluxus to conceptualism and feminism, an inside look at how California's legendary school nurtured a generation of exciting, experimental artists. Founded in 1970 by Walt Disney, CalArts was envisioned as a place where students could exchange ideas and learn multiple means of self-expression along the lines of the Bauhaus School and Black Mountain College. Disney's original impetus was to revive the moribund field of animation; he likely never dreamed that the school would become a trailblazing educational model. This multi- faceted exhibition catalog focuses on the school's early years as it brings together for the first time the parallel development of the Conceptual Art, feminism, and Fluxus movements. Chronologically arranged, the catalog traces how CalArts created fertile ground for situations in which, as founding teacher John Baldessari put it, "art can happen." It follows the institutional establishment of Baldessari's "Post-Studio" course and Miriam Schapiro and Judy Chicago's Feminist Art Program. It explores the school's unique pedagogy, which placed students and teachers on equal footing, and illustrates how the school reflected social issues of the time by challenging authority and patriarchal power structures. Over one hundred works--many never before published--from forty-one artists, along with several enlightening oral history interviews with CalArts protagonists, edited by Verena Kittel, capture a unique and important moment in American arts education.

Key texts and documents from the golden years of the CalArts program. This volume provides an insight into the complex artistic and educational practices that characterized the first decade of the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). There is a special focus on the conceptual and feminist strategies developed in and from John Baldessari's post-studio class as well as Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro's Feminist Art Program, which was initiated in 1970 and brought to the newly founded art school in 1971. As post-studio and feminist practices at CalArts are often characterized by the specific entanglement of cognitive and (habitual) bodily forms of knowledge, the idea of tacit knowledge, and thus learning through social and performative contexts of action, functions as an overarching principle linking all the contributions in the book. Including short introductions on artists such as Baldessari, Alison Knowles, Barbara Bloom, Matt Mullican, James Welling, Jack Goldstein and others, texts by Paulo Friere, Peter Plagens, Michael Polanyi and Daniel Buren, in-depth case studies on individual works and a broad range of documental and photographic material, Tacit Knowledge is designed in the style of a magazine, allowing a diverse and lively approach to the ideas shaping the early years of CalArts.

Catalog of an installation art project, 'Womanhouse," created by the Feminist Art Program at the California Institute of the Arts. Led by Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro, a team of 23 women renovated and transformed a house in Hollywood, California into an "exclusively female environment," a series of rooms and spaces made art by the team of women artists. The catalog includes an essay on the creation of Womanhouse by Chicago and Schapiro, as well as photographs of each of the rooms with artists statements and a commentary on the performance art piece performed in the house.

Documentation of the Women's Art Festival at CalArts in 1974. Features a collection of letters to young women artists.

Jack Goldstein and the CalArts Mafia is the compelling story of Jack Goldstein and some of his classmates at CalArts who in the early 1970's went to New York to discover an art world increasingly consumed by the desire for fame and fortune and the perks of success. The book is anchored by Jack's narratives of the early days of CalArts and the last days of Chouinard; the New York art world of the seventies and eighties; the trials and tribulations of finding and maintaining success; and his inter-personal relationships. They are complemented by the first person narratives of Jack's friends, including John Baldessari, Troy Brauntuch, Rosetta Brooks, Jean Fisher, Robert Longo and Matt Mullican. There are compelling portraits of many well known art world personalities, including Mary Boone, David Salle, and Helene Winer, all working in a time when "the competitive spirit was strong and often brutal, caring little about anything but oneself and making lots of money." Has anything changed?

In personal conversations with Jörn Jacob Rohwer, former CalArts president Lavine tells his life story for the first time, talking about cultural politics, philanthropy, the avant-garde, and Los Angeles at the center of his life.

Under leadership of Dimitri Chamblas, the new Dean of the Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance at CalArts, we welcomed a number of internationally renowned guest artists to create in our spaces, work with our students, and perform new choreography. CalArts has always benefitted from a commitment to experimentation, and this year's guest artists traveled to California to introduce new questions, sharing with us their global perspectives. We invited these artists during and after their visits to imagine a dance training. Herein rests the textual and pictorial residue of such a proposal, one that was interpreted in various ways, from manifesto to interview to photographic image. As new pedagogies are explored, how do embodied memory and discursive reflection translate the body to the page, the energetic to the tactile? Imagine ...

Including work by Douglas Huebler, Richard Artschwager, John Bache, John Baldessari, John Brumfield, JoAnn Callis, Rosalie Carlson, Roger Conrad, Robert Cumming, Louis Danziger, Mike Fink, Allan Hacklin, Steve Kahn, Peter Lodato, John Mandel, Evie Martin, Joe Malloy, Jaime Odgers, Judy Pfaff, Jim Starrett, Greg Thomas, Mike Todd, John van Hamersveld, and Joe Lewis.

Contrapuntal Media (CPM) is a pamphlet series published through the MA Aesthetics and Politics program housed in the School of Critical Studies at the California Institute of the Arts. CPM seeks to be an aesthetic medium for provocative, polemical points that incite counterpoints. CPM features research-in-progress that is presented publicly with minimal editorial intervention or attention to the formalities of scholarly publishing.

The film narrated by Meredith Willson depicts Walt Disney's plans for the California Institute of the Arts. Shows architectural drawings for the Valencia campus location.

Discussion held among original administrators and faculty members of the California Institute of the Arts on the early years of the school's existence. Includes footage and still photos of the school's groundbreaking ceremony. Panelists: Elizabeth Armstrong, Jack Clark, Robert Corrigan, Nick England, Jon Lovelace, Alexander Mackendrick, Kris Malkiewicz, and Mel Powell. Ed Emshwiller (Provost and Dean of the School of Film/Video) introduces these persons' CalArts roles as: founding Librarian (Armstrong), Vice President -- Finance (Clark), founding President (Corrigan), former Dean, Music School (England), Chairman of the Board (Lovelace), founding Dean, School of Film/Video (Mackendrick), distinguished faculty member (Malkiewicz), and founding Dean, School of Music, later Provost (Powell). Filmed February 14, 1985.

Aperiodical was a periodical published by CalArts School of Music from 1986-1988.

Black Clock was published semi-annually by the CalArts MFA Writing Program from 2004-2016.

East of Borneo is an online art publication that was started in 2010 by Thomas Lawson, former Dean of CalArts School of Art.

Oversight was a periodical published by CalArts students from 1989-1993.

Sublevel is an online literary magazine devoted to the nexus of literature, poetics, art, criticism, philosophy, culture, and politics produced by the CalArts MFA Creative Writing Program.

The California Institute of the Arts Publications Collection contains books, directories, handbooks, magazines, newsletters, and other materials documenting a variety of aspects of CalArts including academics, campus events, creative endeavors, and student life. Email libraryarchive@calarts.edu to make an appointment for viewing Archives' materials.