About Suzanne Lacy

Suzanne Lacy (b. 1945) is an activist and performance artist whose work includes installations, videos and large-scale performances on social themes and urban issues. She often collaborates with other artists to produce works about women’s issues. Her first large-scale public work, Three Weeks in May (1977), dramatized the high incidence of rape in Los Angeles. One of her best-known works to date is The Crystal Quilt (Minneapolis, 1987) a performance which included 430 older women and aired live on PBS. She is currently the Chair of Fine Arts at the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles.

Suzanne Lacy, She Who Would Fly, in the context of Three Weeks in May. Performed in Los Angeles, 1977. Photo by Raul Vega.

Further Reading

Garoian, Charles R. “Understanding Performance Art as Curriculum Text: The Community-Based Pedagogy of Suzanne Lacy.” In Perfoming Pedagogy: Toward an Art of Politics. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1999.

Irish, Sharon, and Suzanne Lacy. Suzanne Lacy: Spaces Between. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010.

Lacy, Suzanne. Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art. Seattle, Wash.: Bay Press, c1995.

Lacy, Suzanne, Moira Roth, and Kerstin Mey. Leaving Art : Writings on Performance, Politics, and Publics, 1974-2007. Durham: Duke University Press, 2010.