Turning Point was a large scale art project produced by New Performance Works (Barbara Clausen) and directed by artist Suzanne Lacy. Hundreds of local young and adult women participated in the project. This included a core group of about 30 young women and a working group of about 15 adult women.

The project started in 1995 when Suzanne was invited to the Women in View Festival in Vancouver and the idea for producing a project that brought issues of young women to the fore front was discussed. For this a large community-based feminist art project was formulated.

There were three key components to this project: Mass Media Intervention Campaign; Art Performance, Celebration and Rite of Passage; and Networking and Mentorship. All three components worked together building on one another over a period of two years to culminate in a public art performance, involving young women, titled Under Construction.

The intent of this project was to provide a platform for young women, between girlhood and womanhood, to have their voices heard. To achieve this there was a core group of 30 young women and older girls who worked with youth workers, educators, artists, policy makers and media people. This coalition began the mentorship with project management and media literacy training. From there they began to co-ordinate and construct the look of the project. Three zines were produced by the young women and included visual deconstruction of media images and text, clipped cartoons, and advertising from the 1950's. They also included games, word puzzles, as well as their own drawings, poetry, reflections and a drawing contest. The images and stories presented in Turning Point were negotiated between the artistic director and participating girls. When the Henna Hand painting events occurred, the aesthetic was decided by Suzanne. They all wore the same t-shirt, black with an image in white of a henna hand and the same colour and style of table cloth. The henna handpainting started at the Opening of the Community Cultural Development Conference, Assembly of British Columbia Arts Councils in a downtown Vancouver Hotel. This site provided a supportive environment for the young women to participate in this first performance. Additional henna handpainting performances took place at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Gardens in Vancouver's Chinatown (which draws local and international tourists), and at 11 different cafes' along Commercial Drive in east Vancouver. Known as little Italy, this section of the city draws many people who live an alternative life style. At these events the girls had a fair amount of independence for what they were to discuss with other young women. The public audience was encouraged to listen in on the girls' "private" conversations to have their own hands painted and to engage in discussions with the young women.

Under Construction was the name of the final Turning Point event. It was a large scale site-specific performance that took place in the construction site of the two tower building, The Residences, on Georgia Street in Downtown Vancouver. The event was in the form of a tableau (living painting) performed by hundreds of young women and witnessed by thousands. On the construction site young women performed different tasks, mixing cement, carrying water, transporting materials in wheelbarrows - construction type activities. Another group of girls sat in pairs on overturned buckets and from previously decided topics conversed together on these issues. Outside the construction site the young women directed car and foot traffic and talked with audience members. For visual continuity, the girls wore hardhats and t-shirts of different colours to represent the different roles they were playing.

Hundreds of people showed up for this performance and were brought through the site ­ along a viewing platform in large groups at intervals. Days prior to the performance, safety concerns were identified and audience members were unable to walk amongst the performer until the last part of the production ­ and thus, only the last audience group was able to walk directly amongst the young women. A commissioned music piece by local artist, Jan Berman, using industrial sounds and pre-recorded conversations of the young women, was broadcast for the audience while they stood on walkways and looked through the hoardings above where the performance took place.

The Under Construction performance was video taped and made into a short film by Suzanne Lacy and Darlene Haber.