Credited with challenging the male-dominated Western canon, Judy Chicago is an artist, writer, and teacher who was a trailblazer of 1970s feminist art and activism. Chicago sought to amend women's marginalization in the visual arts and became known for her large collaborative art installation pieces that examine the role of women in history and culture. In 1970, Chicago became employed as a full-time instructor at Fresno State College. Her aim was to teach women the skills needed to express the female perspective in their work, and at Fresno, she taught the first art class that would consist only of women. This became the Feminist Art Program in 1971. Chicago taught at the California Institute for the Arts as well, and championed their Feminist Art Program, which created Womanhouse in 1972. Co-founded with fellow artist Miriam Schapiro, this was the first art exhibition space in the U.S. to display an unvarying female point of view. With Arlene Raven and Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, Chicago then co-founded the Los Angeles Woman's Building in 1973. The art created in the Feminist Art Program and Womanhouse introduced perspectives and content about women’s lives that had before been taboo topics in society, including the art world. In 1978, Chicago founded Through the Flower, a non-profit feminist art organization that seeks to educate the public about the importance of art and how it can be used as a tool to emphasize women's achievements. Chicago's embrace of "female" art forms such as needlework and embroidery in particular also had an effect on many practitioners of textile art. Chicago is known for pieces such as the Birth Project and PowerPlay. Her most famous work, however, is The Dinner Party (1979), which honors forgotten achievements in female history; manifesting 39 elaborate place settings arranged along a triangular dinner table for 39 mythical and historical famous women, it functions as a symbolic representation of women in Western civilization. Widely regarded as the first epic feminist artwork, the installation has toured six countries on three continents and has been viewed by an audience of more than 15 million people. Judy Chicago has permanent collections in numerous museums around the world and was named a National Women's History Project honoree for Women's History Month in 2008. She has been the recipient of numerous grants, fellowships, and honorary degrees from universities, and is the author of eight major books documenting her and other female artists' work. In 2012, Chicago was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Palm Springs Art Fair.