A Feminist Tea Party
September 3 - September 26, 2010
Governors Island
Building 12, Section H, 2nd Floor
New York, NY
A Feminist Tea Party is a collaboration between Caitlin Rueter and Suzanne Stroebe. Our project was first hosted at Winkleman Gallery in New York, NY, and is now coming to the 4heads Art Fair on Governors Island in New York.
Our project lies somewhere in between a contemporary consciousness-raising group, a performance, an installation and a joke. Our project weds two conceptions of a tea party: (1) the tea party as historical referent and site of political debate (think: the Boston Tea Party or the Beck/Palin “Tea Party”) with (2) the tea party as a gendered and highly-stylized ritual (think: 4 o’clock tea). Provoked by the Tea Party Protest movement, our project seeks to recast the “tea party” as a playful, progressive, inquisitive and inclusive space.
We want to revisit the consciousness-raising groups of the 1970s in the set of a 1950s tea party. But, rather than recreating the exclusive environment of the historical consciousness-raising groups, or the homogeneous scene typical of the historical tea party, we will include a wider cast of discussants, conflating the past and present to create an environment where essential and discomfiting issues can be discussed freely and with a sense of humor.
A Feminist Tea Party is a performance, an installation, an educational outreach and a multi-faceted collaboration. Over the course of the four weekends at Governors Island we will host a series of events within the elaborately constructed set of a mid-century tea parlor. Each event invites a new group of guests and, with them, a new conversation. We hope to engage with each of our guests, asking them to experience the space we have created, to perform within it by playing our game, to learn from each other in an open, supportive space for dialogue and, finally, to collaborate, witnessing our two-person collaboration and joining us to make it their own.
We want to make our series a space for open and accepting dialogue, for example, including men in all of our discussion groups, and fostering an environment where all opinions are welcome.
Please join us regardless of your political persuasion or whether you identify as feminist.
Please visit the following sites for more information:
A Feminist Tea Party
The Trust for Governors Island
Suzanne Stroebe