This thread exemplifies the determination of WARM members to work together with other women artists in the community to create dedicated spaces for women to explore womanhood, to build a language around women’s art and to find a community of support.

The Arts Core Program for Women was an experimental, radical feminist visual art curriculum offered at the College of St. Catherine during the 1975-1976 academic year. The program’s methods and philosophy were based on those used at the Feminist Studio Workshop in Los Angeles, an alternative educational institution for women developed by Judy Chicago, Arlene Raven and Sheila de Bretteville in 1973. The Arts Core Program was coordinated and taught by art department faculty members at St. Kate’s: (then) Sr. Ann Jennings, Carole Fisher and Sr. Judith Stoughton. Fisher and Jennings taught studio art, consciousness raising and criticism, while Stoughton taught art history. Fisher was an early WARM member, a founding gallery member and constant community organizer and arts advocate. Jennings—described as a “radical nun” by Judy Chicago—worked closely with Fisher to develop a studio curriculum that provided a safe environment for women artists to explore feminism in their work. Jennings spent a summer in California “training” with Chicago for the program, and appropriately described the Arts Core as “pioneering” in its approach of women-centered art instruction combined with a women-only community of support. The program enrolled 25 women from the College of St. Catherine and neighboring institutions, ranging in age from 19 to 43. 

The Arts Core Program for Women offered space for and an education dedicated to feminist art-making during a time of significant feminist activity nationwide as well as great social, economic and cultural tumult in the United States. While the Arts Core Program lasted only one academic year, many of the students maintained their connections to one another and continued to explore roles as art activists. Several of the students in the Arts Core Program were already WARM members or went on to become members of the collective.

Quimetta Perle was a student of Fisher and Jennings in the Arts Core Program for Women. Perle was a pre-gallery member of WARM, and in 1980, became a WARM gallery member. In the 1970s, Perle was one of the founders of MUSE, a feminist art collective that organized guerilla exhibits in non-traditional sites, such as laundromats. She was also part of Plymouth Church’s Women's Coffeehouse Collective, a group of artists that met weekly to install their work in the Minneapolis church’s fellowship spaces. Perle moved to New York City in 1984 where she worked with the Healing Arts Initiative Studio Program (HAI), managing classes and programming for the culturally underserved—those whose access to arts had been limited by health, age or income. 

While at HAI, Perle met Angela Rogers, a self-taught artist, singer, poet and performer. References to addiction and institutionalization appear often in her work, as does the influence of a near-death experience after surgery for brain trauma in 2012. 

In addition to being a WARM member, Sandra Menefee Taylor was also a student of Fisher and Jennings in the Arts Core Program for Women. Her evolving practice of the last forty years seems directly related to the community-based principles of WARM and the Arts Core Program. Taylor, who is known for sculptural installations that explore the roles of—and the relationships between—artist and viewer, explains that she seeks to “build bridges between the audience and the artwork.” 

The thread of connections, influences, relationships and accomplishments by the artists in this section can be traced to The Arts Core Program for Women, which itself demonstrated the lasting impact of WARM’s ideals to create dedicated spaces for women to make artwork and find a community of support. These artists are an expression of the importance of creating safe spaces for women artists—places where they can freely explore content, themes and concepts that are important to them. At the same time, it is notable that several of the artists featured here found ways to incorporate social justice and art activism into their practices.