Celebrating Feminism through Art

At a public arts magnet high school in Delaware, one art class known for its creative freedom and diversity found itself at a crossroads between expression and resistance. Inspired by Judy Chicago’s revolutionary feminist installation The Dinner Party, students embarked on a bold and meaningful project to challenge censorship, uplift womenʼs voices, and use art as a vehicle for social change.

Judy Chicago and The Dinner Party
The idea began during a unit on feminist art in our 3D design class. As students studied The Dinner Party—Chicago’s iconic tribute to historically significant women—they were struck by the power of reclaiming female narratives often left out of mainstream history. With thirty-nine elaborate place settings representing mythological and historical women, the piece generated powerful discussions about representation, gender, and the ways in which women’s stories have been silenced.

Personal Tributes
In response, students created their own Dinner Party–inspired tributes. Some chose historical figures; others honored unsung women in their lives or in pop culture. The work was raw, thoughtful, and unapologetically feminist. But as the art took shape, so did controversy.

Students began by each creating a visual journal or resource page for their chosen figure. This journal, created in their sketchbooks, broke down all the elements of their subjectʼs life, including age, profession, and other biographical details, along with images and text. From there, students sketched out their entire place setting.

Freedom to Create
Once the sketches were complete, students got started on their ceramic plates. We used biodegradable paper plates for the base mold of the plate to support the elements students would add to create volume.

Students had plenty of choice for how the rest of their objects would be made. Some students used the wheel to throw their cups, while others used wire or other found objects. The placemats were created using fabric, with some students choosing to embroider their figureʼs name and others writing it. They were free to embellish their place settings any way they wanted as long as their work remained cohesive.

Addressing Censorship
“We were told in the past that some of the pieces were ‘inappropriate’ or ‘too political’ for a school display,” one student shared. “But feminism is political. So is censorship. That’s when we realized—we weren’t just learning about feminist art, we were living it.”
Rather than back down, the class decided to face the issue head-on. They transformed their in-school art gallery into a giant triangle, creating a safe space for feminist voices to be seen and heard. Labels included artist statements that explained each piece’s significance and directly addressed the censorship debate.

Virtual Museum Visit
To further deepen their experience, the class took a virtual field trip to the Brooklyn Museum of Art, where The Dinner Party is housed. Seeing the installation in person was transformative, making our work feel like a part of a larger legacy. Chicago didn’t ask for permission to speak out, and we recognized that neither should we.

The Zoom session with the museum lasted an hour and was very engaging for students. We had discussions with the facilitator about Chicago’s use of color and symbolism. We also discussed the lack of diversity in her work and make some suggestions for who we think could be included in her modern work.

Sparking Artistic Expression
This project didn’t just spark artistic growth—it lit a fire. Students organized a panel discussion on freedom of expression in schools, collaborated with the whole art department on creating vector prints of inspirational women throughout history, and even hung the work on the walls around the large triangle.

In the face of censorship, these young artists did more than push back—they created a movement within their school, proving that art is not just decoration, but declaration.