The collaboration between artists Suzanne Lacy and Leslie Labowitz Starus was pivotal in the production of radical new approaches to public performance and the development of alternative networks to support artists. After working together throughout the 1970’s they decided to formalize a coalition of artists, activists, media reporters, and politicians built during their performances on violence against women. The result was  Ariadne: A Social Art Network which became an umbrella for their collaborative public art campaigns on violence against women. Lacy and Labowitz-Starus included other women artists who had they worked with in a series of performances including Three Weeks in May, In Mourning and In Rage and Record Companies Drag their Feet, Along with the work of Lacy and Labowitz-Starus from the 1970’s, we will examine some of the other artists from their milieu such as Nancy Buchanan, Cheri Gaulke, Jerri Allyn and Laurel Klick. The Performing Archives, which was developed by Lacy and Labowitz-Starus, includes extensive documentation from the 1970’s onwards of public performance art in California, and is currently located at the 18th Street Arts Center.

Pacific Standard Time was an unprecedented collaboration of more than sixty cultural institutions across Southern California, coming together to tell the story of the birth of the L.A. art scene. Initiated through grants from the Getty Foundation, Pacific Standard Time took place for six months beginning October 2011. Pacific Standard Time was an initiative of the Getty. The presenting sponsor was Bank of America.