NYFAI offered workshops and classes, held performances and exhibitions and special events that contributed to the political and cultural import of the women's movement at the time.
Nancy Azara introduced "visual diaries" to artists to draw and paint images that arose from consciousness-raising classes and their personal lives.
However, a group continues to meet called (RE)PRESENT, a series of intergenerational dialogues at a NYC gallery to encourage discussion across generations about contemporary issues for women in the arts.
New York Feminist Art Institute opened in June 1979 at 325 Spring Street in the Port Authority Building.
The founding members and the initial board of directors were Nancy Azara, Miriam Schapiro, Selena Whitefeather, Lucille Lessane, Irene Peslikis and Carol Stronghilos.
[1] Open house honorees were Alice Neel, Elaine DeKooning, Vivian Browne, Louise Bourgeois, Lenore Tawney, Faith Ringgold, Nancy Spero, Elizabeth Murray and The Guerilla Girls among others.
[1] Harmony Hammond,[4] Louise Fishman, Arlene Raven, Barbara Hammer, Elke Solomon, Sarah Draney and Zarina Hashmi were instructors[5] and Leila Daw, Faith Ringgold, May Stevens and Darla Bjork taught weekend workshops at the school.
Ceres provides an exhibition space that enhances public awareness and helps remediate women’s limited access to commercial galleries.
Over the years Ceres has encouraged not only artists but writers, musicians, dancers, poets and storytellers to perform in the gallery and take risks with their work that might not be possible in a commercial setting.
Currently, Ceres has a roster of showing artists from the New York metropolitan area and from across the country with a small number from countries outside the U.S. Ceres Gallery was founded in 1984 by Rhonda Schaller, Polly Lai and Darla Bjork, in conversation with NYFAI director, artist Nancy Azara as a program of the New York Feminist Art Institute (NYFAI, 1979–1990).
Early members included: Carol Goebel, Phyllis Rosser, Joan Arbeiter, Sandra Branch and Vivian Tsao.
The gallery was first located at 91 Franklin Street in Tribeca on the ground floor of the building which housed the New York Feminist Art Institute (NYFAI).