Bad Girrls Studios was a popular

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

gallery Gallery or The Gallery may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Art gallery ** Contemporary art gallery Music * Gallery (band), an American soft rock band of the 1970s Albums * ''Gallery'' (Elaiza album), 2014 album * ''Gallery'' (Gr ...

and performance space from 1994 to 2006 initially located at 59 Amory Street and later moved to 209 Green Street in Jamaica Plain. Founded by

School of the Museum of Fine Arts The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (Museum School, SMFA at Tufts, or SMFA; formerly the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) is the art school of Tufts University, a private research university in Boston, Massachus ...

student Jessica Brand, the artist-run studio hosted numerous artistic and community events. Bad Girrls Studios operated under the slogan "Art is Not A Luxury." Bad Girrls Studios supported

female Female (Venus symbol, symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ovum, ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the Sperm, male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gamet ...

artists in particular, and art that addressed the politics of sexuality and pushed boundaries of

sexual orientation Sexual orientation is an enduring pattern of romantic or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. These attractions are generall ...

and

gender identity Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the i ...

. Bad Girrls Studios and Eventworks co-sponsored a 1999 production held at Massachusetts College of Art & Design featuring

Karen Finley Karen Finley (born 1956) is an American performance artist, musician and poet. Her performance art, recordings, and books are used as forms of activism. Her work frequently uses nudity and profanity. Finley incorporates depictions of sexuality, ...

, an American performance artist, musician and poet famous for her works confronting the degradation of women and sexual violence. Opening acts for Karen Finley's performance "Shut up and Love me" included movement artist Emily Dotton and female musical duo

Bitch and Animal Bitch and Animal, a duo consisting of musicians Bitch and Animal Prufrock, were a queercore band that performed from 1995 to 2004. They became established while touring as an opening act for Ani DiFranco, and later launched their own highly succes ...

. Other noteworthy events and exhibits included "Naughty Girrls Nite @ Bad Girrls Studios", produced by studio member Rebecca Goldberg, which drew over 50 women artists and performers from

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

; "Love, Sex and Disappointment", an annual Valentine's Day spoken word event; and the "Post-Apocalyptic Carnival" an audience immersed installation performance series representing the art, culture and food of an imaginary future world re-emerging after an apocalyptic event. Several of the studio members were part of the

Art School Cheerleaders The Art School Cheerleaders were a performance art troupe that used cheerleading as a medium for satirical, political and social commentary on the arts and their place in our society. History Originally existing as the SMFA Cheerleaders at the Sch ...

troop. This performance art group, which began at the

, used Cheerleading as a medium for satirical commentary about the art world and to advocate for arts funding. Bad Girrls Studios hosted workshops and organized community gatherings to discuss the arts. Inspired by Jessica Brand's participation in the

National Association of Artists' Organizations The National Association of Artists' Organizations (NAAO) was, from 1982 through the early 2000s, a Washington, D.C.-based arts service organization which, at its height, had a constituency of over 700 artists' organizations, arts institutions, arti ...

' (NAAO)
Co-Generate Project
(1999-2000), a think tank style leadership and development research initiative for arts professionals under the age of thirty (funded by the National Endowment for the Arts & Rockefeller Foundation), Bad Girrls Studios hosted a gathering of emerging Boston-based arts professionals and organizers working in dance, writing, theatre, music and visual art. The group engaged in dialogue and documented their perspectives of art's relationship to current social concerns, the 'alternative arts' model, empowering artist's access to visibility, and the future of art aesthetics. In 1999, the studio opened its doors to local Boston youth as part of an after-school arts drop-in center in which children engaged in imaginative drawing and painting. Jessica Brand derived her inspiration to establish the non-profit artist run gallery from the passion and work produced by her aun

(1933-2000), a New York City artist, educator and activist who worked in film, sculpture, and multi-media most active in the 1960s and 1970s. Bad Girrls Studios was also influenced by an important

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

space in Boston during that time,

Mobius Artists Group The Mobius Artists Group is an interdisciplinary group of artists, founded in 1977 by Marilyn Arsem in Boston, Massachusetts as Mobius Theater. It is known for incorporating a wide range of visual, performing and media arts into live performance, ...

, that brought cutting-edge performance artists to Boston through an international exchange program. Mobius had been founded by another member of the

community, instructor Marilyn Arsem. Some notable artists as well as studio members working in visual, media & performance art included Justin Lieberman, Dana Moser, Jeff Warmouth, Yoriko Shiraishi, Joan Pamboukes,

Sister Spit Sister Spit was a lesbian-feminist spoken-word and performance art collective based in San Francisco, signed to Mr. Lady Records. They formed in 1994 and disbanded in 2006. Founding members included Michelle Tea and Sini Anderson, Other members i ...

, Jake the Puppet Master, Duncan Wilder Johnson, Dame Darcey and the Cha Cha Caberet. Bad Girrls Studios invited touring and local musical acts to produce events of musical genres ranging from jazz, opera, sound art, alternative rock, blue-grass, roots, mamba, punk rock and hardcore. Some notable musicians that performed at Bad Girrls Studios include: Saturnalia String Trio, Daniel Carter, Nmperign, Miracle Orchestra, Mamashoe, Babaloo, Marc Chillemi, Jossie Perez, Kaffe Mathews,

Bonfire Madigan Madigan Shive, also known as Bonfire Madigan Shive, is an American songwriter, performing artist, community organizer, and musician. Shive is a cellist, singer and guitarist, formerly of the band Tattle Tale and now fronting her own ensemble, ...

, Jessica Ryan,

Mr. Airplane Man Mr. Airplane Man is an American rock band from Boston, Massachusetts. Background and history Margaret Garrett and Tara McManus met each other when they were both 10 years old. The two became childhood friends, but later separated, attending se ...

, Lars Vegas and Lightning Bolt. Other important arts-focused organizations located in Boston's Jamaica Plain's neighborhood during the 1990s include the Jamaica Plain Firehouse Arts Center, The Footlight Club, The Elliot School of Fire & Applied Arts, The Boston Photo Collaborative, Spontaneous Celebrations, Jamaica Plain Arts Council, and Green Street Gallery.

References

External links

Event Works, Studio for Interrelated Media (SIM) at MassArtJamaica Plain Firehouse Arts CenterGreen Street Gallery/ Gallery @ Green Street, Jamaica PlainBoston Photo Collaborative, Jamaica PlainBabaloo

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080516173106/http://www.smfa.edu/Gateways/Alumni/Alumni_Profiles/Alumni_Profile_Rebecca_Goldberg_Oliver.asp Alumni Profile, Rebecca Goldberg, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston] {{coord, 42.3095, -71.1049, region:US-MA, display=title Feminist art organizations in the United States Art museums and galleries in Massachusetts 1996 establishments in Massachusetts 2000 disestablishments in Massachusetts Art museums and galleries established in 1996 Art museums and galleries disestablished in 2000 History of women in Massachusetts