In preparation for WSW’s 50th anniversary, Artistic Director Erin Zona partnered with author, artist, and curator Faythe Levine to examine Women’s Studio Workshop’s Archive and Special Collections. This careful exploration of programming and ephemera has led to a deepened understanding of WSW’s history and cultural contributions, documented here in this detailed historical timeline of the organization’s first 20 years.

Skip To: 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994

1974

Women’s Studio Workshop (WSW) was founded in 1974 by Ann Kalmbach, Tatana Kellner, Anita Wetzel, and Barbara Leoff Burge. Their goals were to develop a studio workspace for artists to create new work and collaborate. Programs were centered on the artistic process. They envisioned a society where women’s art was integral to the cultural mainstream and permanently recorded in history. The first studios(1974-1979) were in a two-story single-family home at the corner of James and John Streets in Rosendale, the site of small community-based printmaking and photography classes. Etching was in the living room, papermaking was in the attic, and screen printing was in the basement. Within the first year New York State Council on the Arts( NYSCA) granted WSW funding to support their vision.

1975

Photography and collograph are added to the workshop curriculum and the Artist in Residence (AIR) program is established. WSW designed and printed the Feminist Poster Series for the annual SUNY New Paltz Women’s Studies Conference.

1976

WSW launches a number of ongoing programs including Women’s Work in Film and Video, a long-standing series of topical films made by women filmmakers, Outskirts, a series of off-site art exhibits, and Summer Workshops for young people. The papermaking studio, a production mill that produced stationeries, diaries, sketchbooks and ephemera was founded. Workshops and classes taught by the founders were offered in experimental media, photography, introductory printmaking, lithography. 

• WSW artistic staff create an environment for SUNY New Paltz Annual Women’s Studies Conference.
• Collective exhibit at Woodstock Women’s Center and Archive Gallery, Rochester, NY

1977

WSW launches the Artist’s Printing Service, hosts the first fundraising benefit at Lake Minnewaska, and receives their first Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) grant for art outreach programs. With support from CETA, VOICES, a collectively written book about women and their work/lives in Ulster County, NY is published. 

• Collective exhibit at gallery of July and August, Woodstock, NY
• WSW participates in invitational exhibitions at SOHO 20, NYC and Mexico City
• Environmental paper sculpture with blue printed images, video and performance pieces installed at Arnolfini Art Center, Rhinebeck, NY

1978

WSW expands the Artist’s Printing Service with the purchase of newer equipment, receives their first National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grant funding, establishes W.I.N.G.S., (Women Invent New Gallery Spaces), a program for exhibiting the work of women artists in non-traditional Gallery Spaces throughout Ulster County, and Women’s Work in Film and Video expands to bi-monthly screenings throughout Ulster County.

• WSW exhibitions at Ulster County Community College and SUNY New Paltz
• W.I.N.G.S.,1978-79 CETA project completed. Four artists and a coordinator created original prints and placed them in 36 permanent sites throughout Ulster County. 

1979

WSW offers graphic design services and employs a full time designer and printer, and the papermaking and photogravure facilities are developed. WSW collaborates with creating a gallery space with the Creative Music Studio.

• WSW Collaborates with NYC based Floating Foundation for Photography in exhibition and community programs
• Flying Objects, artists were invited to create pieces that in some way reacted to the air. In the months leading up to Flying Objects, kite-making workshops were held across the county, New Paltz Airport, NY
• Forty Prints, an Art in Public Places CETA project, Kingston Library, NY
• Project 83, W.I.N.G.S. Art in Public Places, included 36 limited edition prints
• Women Portray: ‘each one as she may’ Gertrude Stein, group portrait exhibition, Ulster County Community College, NY

1980

WSW purchases Binnewater Property, the current facility. The Print Center launches as a design and printing service employing offset, xerox, and silkscreen printing resulting in high quality graphics produced for artists and non-for-profit organizations. WSW joins with other art groups to form Arts in Action Coalition, Women’s Work in Film and Video collaborates on programming with Upstate Films Rhinebeck and Catskill Gypsy Cinema. Artist Tee-Shirts, an artist produced merchandise for wholesale launches, and the first Annual Holiday Sale occurs.

• WSW collectively designed graphics exhibit in national exhibits in Washington DC and Tucson, AZ
• Art Awareness, Ulster County Community College, Lexington, NY
• Roadworks, three artists commissioned  to create environmental artworks installed at Route 32, Army & Navy Store window in Kingston, and the County Arts Festival, NY
• WSW collaborates with Floating Foundation of Photography (NYC), photography exhibition with music and slideshow, Floating Foundation barge docked on Rondout Creek, NY
• Hands On Rag: Paper as Art, group exhibition, Ulster County Community College, NY 
• Rag Suite, WSW exhibition of Handmade Paper, The Kleinert Gallery, Woodstock, NY
• Tana Kellner Photographs, Creative Music Studio, Woodstock, NY

1981

WSW launches the Binnewater Arts Center Campaign, a five year capital building acquisition & renovation program to house all programs in a multi-arts complex. Marketing developed in the first phase of the plan to sell WSW products outside the immediate region and WSW conducts a national survey of women’s cultural organizations to access women’s financial resources.  Binnewater Mercantile Building is insulated, repaired and adapted to temporary apartments for income to WSW building fund. The Artists’ Books projects became the focus of the WSW Artists-in-Residence program.

• WSW exhibition, Dutchess County Community College, NY
• Sue Bucholz program, Creative Music Studio, NY

1982

A Celebration of the WSW’s New Binnewater Studio hosts A Mini Film Festival: Early Women Directors and the Fall Film Program is hosted at Loafer’s Inn a Rosendale local bar that WSW hosted numerous events and happenings over the years and to benefit the building fund WSW hosts ART Auction – Dinner – Film.

• Artists’ Books from the Traditional to the Avant-Garde, Rutgers University, NJ
• Collected Visions: Work by Women Artists Living in Rural New York State, Art Awareness Gallery, Lexington, NY
• Making Book: An Exhibition of Artists’ Books curated by the Women’s Studio Workshop, Dutchess County Community College, Hudson Hall Gallery, NY

1983

In October 1983, WSW celebrated the grand opening of the larger facility the Binnewater Arts Center. The new facility made it possible to offer extended artists residency grants, intensive workshops, the Summer Art Institute, and create internships opportunities for young artists. 

Its home is the historic building that was once the Rosendale Cement Company Store and Post Office. In the 18th and early 19th century, the community consisted of miners who dug limestone from area mines and transported it to nearby kilns where the rock was heated, then ground into Binnewater Cement

Exhibitions:

• Linda Montano/Dolores Hajosy- Collaboration #3: first in the series “12 INVITATION TO 6 EVENTS”
• Diane Mc Intyre / Avery Brooks, second in the series “12 INVITATION TO 6 EVENTS”
• Outrageous Duds, an exhibition of wearable & not-so-wearable art
• Work by Jon Burris and Debra Cimorelli
• Work by Robin Gibson

Events at Loafer’s Inn in Rosendale:

• Stacie Flint, Paintings and Judith Hoyt, Drawings
• Diane Attebury, Painting & Patty Tyrol, Prints
• Marilyn and other works by Ruth Schaeffer
• Diane Golden and Beverly Nichols
• Tana Kellner, Scene Around Rosendale ETC.
• Leslie Roitman and Susan Masket
• Art in Action presents Carolee Schneemann Fresh Blood- A Dream Morphology with Patricia Jones, sponsored by WSW, Kleinert Arts Center, Woodstock, NY

1984

WSW launched two new exhibition programming series, Art In Action and Inskirts. 1984 also marked the 10th birthday of WSW, celebrated with a fundraiser auction featuring a memorable 25-pounds of organic pork, canoe trips, and vacation home get-aways. 

• 1984: Big Brother is Watching, features works from five women’s art organizations: Local 1734, Washington D.C; Women’s Graphic Center, Los Angeles; Feminist Art Institute, New York City; Women’s Art Registry of Minneapolis, MN., Binnewater Arts Center 
• Art in Action Coalition: Musing on Our Lives, Jeanne Lee and Melissa Shook
• Paper, Page, and Image, curator Sara Cushing brings together the handmade paper works and book arts of 17 Washington, DC area artists, Mid-Hudson Arts and Science Center 
• Art as Politics, dialogues event series featuring Erika Rothenberg: Morally Superior Products, Susan Meisels: Photodocumentation in Central America, and Ann Pitrone: Carnival Knowledge

Loafer’s Inn Events:

• Abby Luby presented a series of her personal video expressions. Snow Melts, Springs, and a new three part piece Music Times Three, Grace Notes and See Me Once
• The Girl and Faces/Images/Faces, film and performance by Suzanne Grossberg
• Summer Arts Institute Dialogue series featured; Allison Knowles with Zarina Hashmi, Katharine Kreisher with Nanette Carter and Barbara Leoff Burge, Maria Henle with Tana Kellner, and Heidi Kyle with Sue Bucholz

Inskirts Exhibitions: 

• The Proposal, Artist as Administrator or Administrator as Artist (an installation by Ariel Dougherty and Zelda Tosh 
• Marcia Sheer, Altered Photographs from a Pinhole Camera
• Regina Beyeth, Photographs and Lynne Feinberg, Drawings and Sculpture
• Ann Kalmbach and Elizabeth Grajales, Drawings 
• Linda Nadas, Paintings and Susan Hubener, Prints
• Outskirts Exhibition: Art Off Track, presented sculptures by Martha Stein, Christina Yocca, and Elizabeth Cross installed in the woods along the Delaware and Ulster Rail Ride in Margaretville, NY

1985

WSW launches Hands-on Art, an arts education program that has become a model of studio-based learning. invites students from fourth grade through high school to come and work as artists, with artists in a series of day-long sessions in each of the WSW studios. Artist lectures were presented by; Janet Goldner, Debra Weier, Sue Ann Robinson, and Ann Kresge

Arts In Action presented:

• Composer Joel Chadabe and Jazz violinist Leroy Jenkins, Computer Meets Jazz Violin: An Evening of New Music at the Byrdcliffe Barn in Woodstock, NY
• Skeleton Inning, A Baseball Bacchanal with original music and dance, staged at the baseball field of the Rosendale Recreation Center, NY

Inskirts Exhibitions:

• Work by Cynthia Winika and Gregory Kinder
• Work by Pia Alexander and Maureen Garvin
• Photographs & Paintings Anita Wetzel and Raisa Fastman 
• Summer Arts Institute preview exhibition  
• The land and rural America serve as subject matter for June/July exhibitions. Lena Morin and Patsy Spaddavecchia
• Drawing Offset Print Construction Sue Ann Robinson and Gail Schneider 
• Sculpture Monotypes & Drawings Nancy Macko and Janet Goldner 
• New Prints Northeast Juried Exhibit
• Work by Tina Claes-Flaxer and Roberley Bell 
• Prints in Progress, an example of the art-in-education program WSW will initiate in conjunction with Kingston Consolidated Schools
• Work by Sandra Moss and Ann Kresge 

Off-site Exhibitions:

• Facelift, curated by Ariel Dougherty and created by Dena Crane, Tana Kellner and Joni Miller. Along with the exhibition WSW presented a series of four video programs at the Catskill Center for Photography
• Women’s Studio Workshop, Center for Book Arts, New York, NY
• In the Works featured work from the WSW, Mount Gulian Society Verplanck House, Beacon NY

1986

Exhibitions: 

New Prints Northeast, a juried group exhibition 

Inskirts Exhibitions:

• Lorna Massie & Desiree Aller, Prints and Drawings
• Jessica Hines photographs and Deborah Moules sculptures
• La Gran Pasion, a traveling exhibition organized by Enfoco 
• Work by Summer Arts Institute instructors
• Women and Technology curated by computer artist Barbara Nessim
• Works on Paper by Nancy Korczakowski and the prints and collage of Patty Tyrol 
• Work by Sue Bucholz and Nancy Azara
• Artists’ Bookworks & Fiberarts Marilyn Rosenberg and Carla Rodio
• Slide Lectures were presented by; Gwen Cooper, Gail Cohen Edelman, Linda Montano, Suzanne Anker, Ann Kresge, Tana Kellner, Nancy McGee, Shanna Linn, Barbara Mauriello, Cheryl Kolak Dudek, Hester Stinnett, Barbara Bash, Erica Van Horn, and Sokhi Wagner WSW’s first film artist-in-residence shows films and gives a talk.

Off-site Exhibitions:

• WSW Bookworks at Artists Bookworks (ABW): artists’ books produced in residency at Women’s Studio Workshop, curated by ABW, State of Illinois Art Gallery, Chicago, IL 
• WSW Coming of Age, 12 year retrospective, at Mid-Hudson Arts and Science Center, Poughkeepsie, NY
• Art In Action sponsored music by Kenny Burrell, dance by the Nanette Bearden Dance Company and visuals by Audrey Hemenway, Ulster County Community College, NY

1987

Exhibitions:

• 4th Annual New Prints Northeast juried exhibition 
• Hands-On-Art! An exhibition of art created at WSW by young artists from the Kingston City Schools

Art In Action Events: 

• Joe Morris, jazz guitarist and Nancy Ostrovsky, painter present Audio Visual a performance combining spontaneous painting and improvised music, Woodstock, NY
• Leroy Jenkins, jazz violinist and Laura Shapiro, dancer/choreographer present Big Wood, a multi-media collaboration based on the story of Little Red Riding Hood, Woodstock, NY 
• Betty Macdonald, violinist/vocalist, Yung Yung Tsuai, dancer/choreographer with guest poet Janine Pommy Vega and Keyboardist Vinnie Martucci, Woodstock, NY
• Ann Kresge printer/book artist and Michael Nord, jazz guitarist with guest poet David Matlin, Woodstock, NY 

Inskirts Exhibitions: 

• Prints, Drawings & Sculpture by Aleda Schoonmaker and Mimi Czajka-Graminski 
• Photography by Muriel Magenta and Select Works by the students of photography SUNY New Paltz 
• Books & Random Objects Erica Van Horn and Diana Mara Henry “One-Room Schools of Ulster County” 
• Photographs & Paperworks by Sokhi Wagner & Susan Fateh
• Paintings by Mary Henderson and Prints by Jean Johnson 
• Paintings & Sculpture Lucinda Knaus and Jacqueline Shatz 
• Narrative Drawings by Barbara Leoff Burge 
• Paintings & Mixed Media by Diane Attebury and Marlene Bloomer
• Prints & Photography Mildred Cohen & Jenni Lukac
• Prints & Sculptures Leslie Roitman & Harold Harris 

Off-site Exhibitions:

• Flashlight, Rosendale town-wide celebration of winter parade and party ending at the Rosendale Community Center
• Women’s Autobiographical Artists’ Books, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Art Museum Arts Galleries and Golda Meir Library, WI

1988

Exhibitions:

• Montano Appears, Linda Montano begins a new work in her “Performance in Healing” series with WSW and will be offering tarot, palm readings and art/life counseling on a one-to-one basis at Art/Life Outposts in the area including WSW
• Paintings & Mixed Media Nancy Ostrovsky and Susan Masket
• Girls Grow Up by Binnewater Barn Build Studio 
• Work by Cecile Broz and Debra Goldman 
• HOT! An exhibition of contemporary Florida Women Artists curated by Mary Henderson 
• From The Studios WSW Print and Paper Artists work produced at WSW 
• Regina Vater Artist’s Book, Visual Poetry and Installation 
• Photographs by Madonna Dunbar and Barbara Rosenthal 
• Photographs & Finger Book 2 Cyanotypes by Carolee Schneemann and Alison Knowles 
• 5th Annual New Prints Northeast juried exhibition 
• Work by Linda Lawton and Gay Leonhardt 
• Photographs by Cathryn Griffin and Jeannette May: Airing Out, An Installation 
• Woodcuts by Robin Gibson

Offsite Exhibitions:

• Books, Art, Bookarts at HERA Gallery, Wakefield, RI 
• Multiples Edition Prints Production Pottery, Suffolk Community College, NY 
• WSW presents Jerri Allyn American Dining: A Working Women’s Moment, The Gay 90’s Bistro, New Paltz, NY
• Benefit for WSW Futu Futu, Ulster Performing Arts Center, NY
• Welcome To Our House by Suzanne Grossberg, co sponsored by WSW and the Music Department at SUNY, New Paltz, NY

Inskirts Exhibitions: 

• Collage Painting with Maureen Garvin and Pia Alexander
• Roberta Crown, Prints and Al Doyle, Paintings 
• Helene Cote, Woodcuts and Phillia C. Yi, Screenprints

1989

WSW celebrated 15th years with a Birthday Benefit Auction with Galen Blum as Auctioneer and Michael Nord playing music 

Off-site Event Series: 

• Writers’ Rites Series WSW and Oliveros Foundation’s Live Letters Parlour presents a series of readings by contemporary women writers in Kingston; Mary Gordon and Meg Wolitzer, Janice King and Kate Davis, Maureen Brady and Paula Martinac, Lone and Terry Hauptman

Exhibitions: 

• Daniel Serra-Badue and Russell Forrest Etter 
• Leslie Harris and Clinton Smith 
• Jean Casbarian and Sheila Goloborotko 
• Michelle Stuhl and Cordula Volkening 
• Barbara Elam and Carolyn De Simine
• Susan Altman and Michelle French
• Ernest Frazier 
• Caren Heft and Janet Yake 
• New Prints Northeast 

Performances: 

• Dreams (breathe/don’t breathe) of Home and the Beginning or the End final work in Pig Baby Series by Marilyn Arsem
• Desire, Rinse, Repeat (Tales from the Wash Cycle) by Hawley Hussey
• Art Riot Theater by David Wheeler

1990

Exhibitions: 

• Work by Jeanne Tremel & Joy L. Mishkin
• Work by Barbara Garber & Cristine Wade
• Words and Image: with a message, curated by Nancy Spero
• Suzanne Bocanegra
• Jon Burris & Debra Cimorelli
• Anita Wetzel & Beth Grabowski
• Louise Weinberg & Marcy Edelstein
• Kathy Cahill & Hallie Levine

WSW and Active Culture Performance Series: 

• Monica Grant, California-based musician/stand-up comic
• Sue Fink, musician touring on True Life Adventure album release
• Terry Jenoure, vocalist, violinist, and composer performing “Undecided By Press Yime” 
• Lucie Blue Tremblay, a solo bilingual (French and English) performance of original music
• Terry Niedzialek, At the Corner of Error and Perfection, a multi-media performance based on the concept of live environmental hair montage incorporating dance, film, slides, and video.
• Barbara Bash joined by Steve Gorn and Steve Clorfeine in a collaborative piece “On the Mark.”

Off Site Exhibition: 

• Out of Control Artists’ Books: An Exhibition curated by Artists’ Book Works and Jo Peer, A.R.C Gallery, Chicago. 

Off-Site Event Series: 

• Writers’ Rites: Women’s Studio Workshop presents a series of readings by contemporary women writers; Shay Youngblood and Cassandra Medley, Valerie Miner and Myra Goldberg, Francine Prose and Lydia Davis, Vivian Gornick and Elisa Davila, Joan Lindau and Isabel Miller, Enid Dame and Shirley Powell

1991

Off-Site Event Series:

• Writers’ Rites: Women’s Studio Workshop presents a series of readings by contemporary women writers, in cooperation with the YWCA of Ulster County presents a series of readings by contemporary women writers; Carol Maso and Laura Mullen, Joan Larkin and Honor Moore, Thuliani Davis and Patricia Jones

1992

WSW launches the Art Cuts Campaign to counter the loss of $35,000 in grants, and anticipation of losing $10,000 in 1992’-93. 

Exhibitions: 

• Cheryl Solomon, Excerpts from KNOT Journalism, Collection of Ruth and Marvin Sackner
• Work by Lillian Bell
• Work by Barbara Harmon
• Thoughts of Vindication by Lisa Kellogg
• Artists’ Books from Women’s Studio Workshop, Rosendale NY; and exhibit at the George Waters Gallery Campus Center, Elmira College, NY 

Off-Site Series:

• Writers’ Rites: Women’s Studio Workshop presents a series of readings by contemporary women writers, in cooperation with the YWCA of Ulster County presents a series of readings by contemporary women writers; Ursule Molinaro and Dina McClellan

1993

Artists’ Books 1979-1993 A Selection, Women’s Studio Workshop, Harper Collins, NY 

Summer Reading Series: Susan Daitch and Linda Collins, Rosendale Public Library, NY

1994

WSW was actively pursuing the idea of farming and harvesting plant fibers for papermaking, and experimenting with unique and otherwise unavailable raw materials to make paper. This would lead to the official beginning of ArtFarm two years later. A request was made in the newsletter for support to update rotary phones for the 20th birthday. 

Exhibitions: 

• WSW XX Years – A Retrospective, celebrating 20 years of WSW, State University College of New York at New Paltz. Exhibition traveled; East Carolina University, Grinnell College, Iowa, Primary Object Gallery, San Antonio TX, Columbia Basin College, Pasco, WA, Hartwick College, Oneonta NY 
• All Hands On Deck, WSW presents the artwork of former interents 
• Student Made Artist Books
• Writers’ Rites: Women’s Studio Workshop presents a series of readings by contemporary women writers, Dina McClellan, Maxine Rodburg, Denise Duhamel, Sapphire, Ione, Judith Brenet, Casey Kurtti, and Sybil Rosen