About

n a career that has spanned over 50 years, the renowned graphic designer, public artist, and educator Sheila Levrant de Bretteville (b. 1940, B.F.A. 1963, M.F.A. 1964) has created community-based and politically responsive work that champions principles of advocacy and inclusion. To celebrate the opening of the exhibition Sheila Levrant de Bretteville: Community, Activism, and Design, join de Bretteville for an engaging conversation with Brooke Hodge, independent curator, and Pamela Hovland, Senior Critic, Graphic Design, Yale School of Art, that explores key moments in her multifaceted career—from her cofounding of the Woman’s Building in Los Angeles in 1973 to her appointment as Director of Graduate Studies in the Graphic Design program at Yale in 1990, and touching upon her numerous public projects, including three in New Haven. Moderated by John Stuart Gordon, the Benjamin Attmore Hewitt Curator of American Decorative Arts, Yale University Art Gallery. Generously sponsored by the Martin A. Ryerson Lectureship Fund.

Many of the works that the graphic designer, public artist, and educator Sheila Levrant de Bretteville (b. 1940, B.F.A. 1963, M.F.A. 1964) made in Los Angeles during the early 1970s have become icons of feminist design. In collaboration with the artist Judy Chicago and the historian Arlene Raven, among others, she helped establish a series of academic programs and institutions that promoted feminist art and provided spaces for creativity, including the Woman’s Building in downtown Los Angeles. Using photographic and typographic collage, de Bretteville established a visual identity for these initiatives that echoed the vibrancy and urgency of their missions. Join John Stuart Gordon, the Benjamin Attmore Hewitt Curator of American Decorative Arts and one of the cocurators of the exhibition Sheila Levrant de Bretteville: Community, Activism, and Design, for a Gallery Talk that explores a number of these dynamic projects. Generously sponsored by the Martin A. Ryerson Lectureship Fund. Gather by the Public Programs sign in the Gallery lobby. Space is limited.

Mixed Company of Yale presents a performance at the Yale University Art Gallery that responds to themes and objects in the exhibition Sheila Levrant de Bretteville: Community, Activism, and Design. The performance will also activate “re:Pink,” a participatory exercise inspired by de Bretteville’s iconic 1974 poster assembling responses to the question “What does the color pink mean to you?” Gallery+ is an ongoing series of collaborations that invites responses to the Gallery’s collection through special programs and performances. Generously sponsored by the Martin A. Ryerson Lectureship Fund.