Series LA.SC168.S3 - Public Programming

The Women’s Cultural Building (WCB) was a feminist cultural organization, or women’s collective, that aimed to initiate and support artistic projects and programs promoting community and feminist concerns. It emerged following the dissolution of the Pauline McGibbon Centre in November 1981, with the intention of establishing a space where women could meet and engage in cultural activities. From the onset, it encouraged inclusive membership and collaborative programming, aiming to “develop a critical framework that functions within a feminist discourse by placing work in a social, political and aesthetic context.” The collective began activity in November 1981 and was incorporated in March 1983.

Collective members included Kay Armitage, Rene Baert, Carole Conde, Christine Curlin, Rosemary Donegan, Susan Feldman, Colette Gagnon, Lina Fratticelli, Cynthia Grant, Janice Hladki, Johanna Householder, Sandra Janz, Kerri Kwinter, Tanya Mars, Joyce Mason, Christina Ritchie, Tanya Rosenberg, Lisa Steele, Nesya Shapiro and Susan Swan, among others.

The WCB was most active during the years 1982-1984. One of its first programs was a panel discussion on placing “The Dinner Party” by Judy Chicago in a feminist critical context. A manuscript presented in this discussion was later published in the December 1982 issue of Fireweed. Another significant program was the two-month long Festival of Women Building Culture, which included a series of events such as the “Womanfilm” film festival, the “Pork Roasts” exhibitions, “Storefronting” installations, the “Edible Art Show,” and the “Five Minute Feminist Cabaret,” as well as several performances, talks, and slideshows. Other activities and projects included the Women’s Info Hotline, panel discussions, workshops, toolkits, benefit concerts, poetry readings, window displays, independent film screenings, and a resource library (which involved the circulation of printed materials on the role of women artists in major art galleries in Toronto in 1982; several thousand people received these materials).

Ultimately, the WCB ceased activity in March 1997. The subsequent collective decision to transfer WCB archives to the Women’s Art Resource Center in 1997 was celebrated with a final exhibition titled “Building Women’s Culture: Women’s Cultural Building - Selections from the Archive.”

It is important to note that the use of the word “Building” in the collective’s name referred primarily to the verb. While initial planning included ideas around a designated physical building, such as renting the Parisian Laundry Mat, it was decided that the focus should stay on “building women’s culture” in spaces throughout the city, rather than “putting women in a building.” Though it did acquire a storefront headquarters and gallery at 563 Queen Street West for a brief period (for the “Pork Roasts: 250 Feminist Cartoons” exhibition on March 14, 1983), the collective organized predominantly in the homes of its members and satellite spaces. Satellite spaces and venues that hosted WCB events included the A.R.C. gallery, A Space, Cameron Tavern, Dufflet Pastries, Nightwood Theatre, Gallery 940, Pages, Pelican, Stagger Lee’s, the Rivoli, Bloor Cinema, and the Centre for Contemporary Photography.