National Museum of Women in the Arts
Encyclopedia
The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), located in Washington, D.C.
is the only museum
solely dedicated to celebrating women’s achievements in the visual, performing, and literary arts. NMWA was incorporated in 1981 by Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay
. Since opening its doors in 1987, the museum has acquired a collection of more than 4,000 paintings, sculptures, works on paper and decorative art. Highlights of the collection include works by Mary Cassatt
, Frida Kahlo
, and Élisabeth Louise Vigée-Le Brun. The museum occupies a Masonic Temple, a building listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
that they saw in Europe, they sought out information on Peeters and found that the definitive art history texts referenced neither her nor any other woman artist. They became committed to collecting artwork by women and eventually to creating a museum and research center.
The National Museum of Women in the Arts was incorporated in December 1981 as a private, non-profit museum, and the Holladay donation became the core of the institution’s permanent collection. After purchasing and extensively renovating a former Masonic Temple, NMWA opened in April 1987 with the inaugural exhibition American Women Artists, 1830-1930. To underscore its commitment to increasing the attention given to women in all disciplines, NMWA commissioned Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich to write Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra inspired by five paintings from the permanent collection, for an opening concert. In November 1997, the Elisabeth A. Kasser Wing was opened, adding two new galleries, a larger museum shop, and a reception room. Currently, Director Susan Fisher Sterling heads a staff of more than 30 people.
to Washington, D.C. Notably, Wood was recognized as being especially supportive of women architects during his lifetime. Until the 1920s, the fifth floor housed George Washington University’s Law Library. The original structure is on the D.C. Inventory List of Historic Sites as well as the National Register of Historic Places
. Throughout the 20th century, it was used as a movie theater. After extensive renovations that included the addition of the two dramatic marble stairways linking the first floor and mezzanine, the museum opened to the public on April 7, 1987. The Elizabeth A. Kasser Wing opened November 8, 1997 making the entire facility 84,110 sq ft (7814 m²).
Holladay created individual committees of over 1,000 volunteers from 27 states and 7 countries, to give educational opportunities to children through collaborations with schools and other community groups (e.g. Girl Scouts of the USA
), as well as provided opportunities for adults to participate and encourage art in local communities across the globe.
Wilhelmina Cole Holladay's interest in art was sparked as a student at Elmira College
in New York, where she studied art history, followed by graduate work at the University of Paris
. She is listed in Who's Who of American Women, Who's Who in American Art
, Who's Who in the World, and she holds many honorary degrees and achievement awards for her work in the arts community. In 2006 she received the National Medal of Arts
from the United States and the Légion d'honneur
from the French government. In 2007 Holladay received the Gold Medal for the Arts from the National Arts Club
in New York City.
. The museums efforts are in part to bring "character" to an area where "there is a lot of good stuff going on," due to revitalization programs in the neighborhood. de Saint Phalle's works, four in total, are the first in a series of installations.
The museums installation of de Saint Phalle's iconic pop art works are meant to be contrasting to the traditional sculpture that graces the streets and squares of Washington. All five major median strips will eventually be made into "sculpture islands," as described by National Museum of Women in the Art's director Susan Fisher Sterling. Another inspiration for the project comes from the lack of innovative contemporary art in Washington, encouraging the evolution of an area that is in need of becoming hip and vibrant.
The project has been sponsored by Medda Gudelsky, the D.C. Downtown B.I.D., the Philip L. Graham Fund, the Homer and Martha Gudelsky Family Foundation, members of the museum, the D.C. Department of Transportation, among others.
These works will remain up for one year, before being returned to the artists foundation.
’s Portrait of a Noblewoman, ca. 1580. There are also a number of special collections, including 18th century botanical prints, works by British and Irish women silversmiths from the 17th–19th centuries, and more than 1,000 unique and limited edition artists’ books.
Nearly 1,000 artists are represented, including Magdalena Abakanowicz
, Lynda Benglis
, Rosa Bonheur
, Chakaia Booker
, Louise Bourgeois
, Lola Alvarez Bravo
, Rosalba Carriera
, Mary Cassatt, Elizabeth Catlett
, Judy Chicago
, Camille Claudel
, Louisa Courtauld
, Petah Coyne
, Louise Dahl-Wolfe
, Elaine de Kooning
, Lesley Dill
, Helen Frankenthaler
, Marguerite Gérard
, Nan Goldin
, Nancy Graves
, Grace Hartigan
, Frida Kahlo, Angelica Kauffmann
, Käthe Kollwitz
, Lee Krasner
, Justine Kurland
, Marie Laurencin
, Hung Liu
, Judith Leyster
, Maria Martinez
, Maria Sibylla Merian
, Joan Mitchell
, Gabriele Münter
, Elizabeth Murray
, Alice Neel
, Louise Nevelson, Sarah Miriam Peale
, Clara Peeters, Lilla Cabot Perry
, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
, Rachel Ruysch
, Elisabetta Sirani
, Joan Snyder
, Lilly Martin Spencer
, Alma Thomas, Suzanne Valadon
, and Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun.
Also available to researchers are The Nelleke Nix and Marianne Huber Collection: The Frida Kahlo Papers consists of more than 360 unpublished letters, postcards, notes, clippings, printed matter, and drawings relating to the artist’s life and work.
In spring 2007, the LRC launched Clara: Database of Women Artists®, a user-friendly searchable interface for biographic information on close to 18,000 historic and contemporary women artists from around the world. Integrated within the NMWA Web site, Clara is accessible to users around the world.
The free Shenson Chamber Music Concerts support the museum’s mission of recognizing women in all areas of the arts by featuring woman musicians throughout the year. Past performers include the Ahn Trio
, Arianna and Eugenia Zuckerman, Ingrid Fliter
, Sharon Ibsin and Rachel Barton Pine
. NMWA’s literary programs showcase women writers by bringing in authors such as Susan Vreeland, Lisa See
, Maxine Hong Kingston
, Naomi Shihab Nye
, Joyce Carol Oates
, and Mireille Guiliano
. In addition, NMWA has offered film screenings of works by respected women directors and screenwriters including Maya Angelou
, Barbara Hammer
, Cheryl Dunye
, Eva López Sánchez, Miranda July
, Bette Gordon, and Julie Taymor
.
and H Street N.W. The closest Washington Metro
stations are Metro Center or McPherson Square
stations. The museum is open Monday–Saturday 10 a.m.–5 p.m. and Sundays noon–5 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for students and visitors 65 and over, and free for members and visitors 18 and under. Admission is free to all on the first Sunday of every month. The NMWA Museum Shop is open the same hours at the Museum.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
is the only museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
solely dedicated to celebrating women’s achievements in the visual, performing, and literary arts. NMWA was incorporated in 1981 by Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay
Wilhelmina Holladay
Wilhelmina Cole Holladay is an American art collector and patron, and co-founder of the National Museum of Women in the Arts....
. Since opening its doors in 1987, the museum has acquired a collection of more than 4,000 paintings, sculptures, works on paper and decorative art. Highlights of the collection include works by Mary Cassatt
Mary Cassatt
Mary Stevenson Cassatt was an American painter and printmaker. She lived much of her adult life in France, where she first befriended Edgar Degas and later exhibited among the Impressionists...
, Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo de Rivera was a Mexican painter, born in Coyoacán, and perhaps best known for her self-portraits....
, and Élisabeth Louise Vigée-Le Brun. The museum occupies a Masonic Temple, a building listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
History
The museum was founded to reform traditional histories of art. It is dedicated to discovering and making known women artists who have been overlooked or unacknowledged, and assuring the place of women in contemporary art. The museum’s founder, Wilhelmina Cole Holladay, and her husband Wallace F. Holladay began collecting art in the 1960s, just as scholars were beginning to discuss the under-representation of women in museum collections and major art exhibitions. Impressed by a 17th-century Flemish still life painting by Clara PeetersClara Peeters
Clara Peeters was a Flemish painter noted for painting still lifes, particularly of breakfast scenes and florals.-Life:Few details of her life are known. She was baptized in Antwerp in 1594, and married there in 1639. She is known to have lived in Amsterdam and The Hague. Her first known work was...
that they saw in Europe, they sought out information on Peeters and found that the definitive art history texts referenced neither her nor any other woman artist. They became committed to collecting artwork by women and eventually to creating a museum and research center.
The National Museum of Women in the Arts was incorporated in December 1981 as a private, non-profit museum, and the Holladay donation became the core of the institution’s permanent collection. After purchasing and extensively renovating a former Masonic Temple, NMWA opened in April 1987 with the inaugural exhibition American Women Artists, 1830-1930. To underscore its commitment to increasing the attention given to women in all disciplines, NMWA commissioned Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich to write Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra inspired by five paintings from the permanent collection, for an opening concert. In November 1997, the Elisabeth A. Kasser Wing was opened, adding two new galleries, a larger museum shop, and a reception room. Currently, Director Susan Fisher Sterling heads a staff of more than 30 people.
Building
In 1983, NMWA purchased a landmark 78,810 sq ft (7322 m²) former Masonic temple in the Renaissance Revival style to house its works. Initially drafted by architect Waddy B. Wood, the main building was completed in 1908 in an effort to bring the City Beautiful movementCity Beautiful movement
The City Beautiful Movement was a reform philosophy concerning North American architecture and urban planning that flourished during the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of using beautification and monumental grandeur in cities. The movement, which was originally associated mainly with Chicago,...
to Washington, D.C. Notably, Wood was recognized as being especially supportive of women architects during his lifetime. Until the 1920s, the fifth floor housed George Washington University’s Law Library. The original structure is on the D.C. Inventory List of Historic Sites as well as the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
. Throughout the 20th century, it was used as a movie theater. After extensive renovations that included the addition of the two dramatic marble stairways linking the first floor and mezzanine, the museum opened to the public on April 7, 1987. The Elizabeth A. Kasser Wing opened November 8, 1997 making the entire facility 84,110 sq ft (7814 m²).
Wilhelmina Cole Holladay
Wilhelmina Cole Holladay is the founder and chair of the Board of the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Since her discovery that women artists have historically been omitted from collegiate art history texts, Wilhelmina Cole Holladay has made it her mission to bring to the forefront the accomplishments of women through collecting, exhibiting and researching women artists of all nationalities and time periods.Holladay created individual committees of over 1,000 volunteers from 27 states and 7 countries, to give educational opportunities to children through collaborations with schools and other community groups (e.g. Girl Scouts of the USA
Girl Scouts of the USA
The Girl Scouts of the United States of America is a youth organization for girls in the United States and American girls living abroad. It describes itself as "the world's preeminent organization dedicated solely to girls". It was founded by Juliette Gordon Low in 1912 and was organized after Low...
), as well as provided opportunities for adults to participate and encourage art in local communities across the globe.
Wilhelmina Cole Holladay's interest in art was sparked as a student at Elmira College
Elmira College
Elmira College is a coeducational private liberal arts college located in Elmira, in New York State's Southern Tier region.The college is noted as the oldest college still in existence which granted degrees to women that were the equivalent of those given to men...
in New York, where she studied art history, followed by graduate work at the University of Paris
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...
. She is listed in Who's Who of American Women, Who's Who in American Art
Who's Who in American Art
Who's Who in American Art is a biographical hardcover directory of noteworthy individuals in the visual arts community in the United States, published by Marquis Who's Who, formerly by R.R. Bowker Publishing. The directory has also listed some individuals from Canada and Mexico, plus some American...
, Who's Who in the World, and she holds many honorary degrees and achievement awards for her work in the arts community. In 2006 she received the National Medal of Arts
National Medal of Arts
The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and patrons of the arts. It is the highest honor conferred to an individual artist on behalf of the people. Honorees are selected by the National Endowment for the...
from the United States and the Légion d'honneur
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
from the French government. In 2007 Holladay received the Gold Medal for the Arts from the National Arts Club
National Arts Club
The National Arts Club is a private club in Gramercy Park, New York City, New York, USA. It was founded in 1898 to "stimulate, foster, and promote public interest in the arts and to educate the American people in the fine arts". Since 1906 the organization has occupied the Samuel J...
in New York City.
New York Avenue Sculpture Project
By 2015 a selection of sculptures will be installed along New York Avenue from 13th Street to 9th Street, in the heart of Mount Vernon SquareMount Vernon Square
Mount Vernon Square is a city square in the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. It is located where the following streets would otherwise intersect: Massachusetts Avenue, New York Avenue, K Street, and 8th Street NW....
. The museums efforts are in part to bring "character" to an area where "there is a lot of good stuff going on," due to revitalization programs in the neighborhood. de Saint Phalle's works, four in total, are the first in a series of installations.
The museums installation of de Saint Phalle's iconic pop art works are meant to be contrasting to the traditional sculpture that graces the streets and squares of Washington. All five major median strips will eventually be made into "sculpture islands," as described by National Museum of Women in the Art's director Susan Fisher Sterling. Another inspiration for the project comes from the lack of innovative contemporary art in Washington, encouraging the evolution of an area that is in need of becoming hip and vibrant.
The project has been sponsored by Medda Gudelsky, the D.C. Downtown B.I.D., the Philip L. Graham Fund, the Homer and Martha Gudelsky Family Foundation, members of the museum, the D.C. Department of Transportation, among others.
These works will remain up for one year, before being returned to the artists foundation.
Collection
The collection currently contains more than 4,000 works in a variety of styles and media, spanning from the 16th century to present day. Among the earliest works is Lavinia FontanaLavinia Fontana
Lavinia Fontana was an Italian painter.-Biography:Lavinia Fontana was born in Bologna, the daughter of the painter Prospero Fontana, who was a prominent painter of the School of Bologna at the time and served as her teacher...
’s Portrait of a Noblewoman, ca. 1580. There are also a number of special collections, including 18th century botanical prints, works by British and Irish women silversmiths from the 17th–19th centuries, and more than 1,000 unique and limited edition artists’ books.
Nearly 1,000 artists are represented, including Magdalena Abakanowicz
Magdalena Abakanowicz
Magdalena Abakanowicz is a Polish sculptor. She is notable for her use of textiles as a sculptural medium. She was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań, Poland from 1965 to 1990 and a visiting professor at University of California, Los Angeles in 1984...
, Lynda Benglis
Lynda Benglis
Lynda Benglis is an American sculptor known for her wax paintings and poured latex sculptures. After earning a BFA from Newcomb College in 1964, Benglis moved to New York, where she lives and works today...
, Rosa Bonheur
Rosa Bonheur
Rosa Bonheur, born Marie-Rosalie Bonheur, was a French animalière, realist artist, and sculptor. As a painter she became famous primarily for two chief works: Ploughing in the Nivernais , which was first exhibited at the Salon of 1848, and is now in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris depicts a team...
, Chakaia Booker
Chakaia Booker
Chakaia Booker is an African American artist who was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1953.-Background:Booker received a Bachelor of Art in Sociology from Rutgers University in 1976. She then received her Master of Fine Arts from the City College of New York in 1993...
, Louise Bourgeois
Louise Bourgeois
Louise Joséphine Bourgeois , was a renowned French-American artist and sculptor, best known for her contributions to both modern and contemporary art, and for her spider structures, titled Maman, which resulted in her being nicknamed the Spiderwoman...
, Lola Alvarez Bravo
Lola Alvarez Bravo
Lola Álvarez Bravo was a Mexican photographer. She was a key figure in Mexico's post-revolution renaissance....
, Rosalba Carriera
Rosalba Carriera
Rosalba Carriera was a Venetian Rococo painter. In her younger years, she specialized in portrait miniatures...
, Mary Cassatt, Elizabeth Catlett
Elizabeth Catlett
Elizabeth Catlett Mora is an African-American sculptor and printmaker. Catlett is best known for the black, expressionistic sculptures and prints she produced during the 1960s and 1970s, which are seen as politically charged....
, Judy Chicago
Judy Chicago
Judy Chicago is a feminist artist, author, and educator.Chicago has been creating artwork since the mid 1960s. Her earliest forays into the art world coincided with the rise of Minimalism, which she eventually abandoned in favor of art she believed to have greater content and relevance...
, Camille Claudel
Camille Claudel
Camille Claudel was a French sculptor and graphic artist. She was the elder sister of the poet and diplomat Paul Claudel.- Early years :...
, Louisa Courtauld
Louisa Courtauld
Louisa Courtauld was an English silversmith.Daughter of a silk weaver from France, Courtauld was born in London, in which city she spent most of her career. She lived in a cottage behind Joseph Priestley's house off Clapton Square on the corner of Clapton Passage and Lower Clapton Road in Hackney...
, Petah Coyne
Petah Coyne
Petah Coyne is a contemporary American sculptor and photographer. Some of her works are in the permanent collections of museums and galleries such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Corcoran Gallery of...
, Louise Dahl-Wolfe
Louise Dahl-Wolfe
Louise Emma Augusta Dahl was a noted American photographer. She is known primarily for her work for Harper's Bazaar, in association with fashion editor Diana Vreeland.-Background:...
, Elaine de Kooning
Elaine de Kooning
Elaine de Kooning was an Abstract Expressionist, Figurative Expressionist painter in the post-World War II era and editorial associate for Art News magazine...
, Lesley Dill
Lesley Dill
Lesley Dill is an American contemporary artist and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She is represented by George Adams Gallery, New York and Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans.-Education:...
, Helen Frankenthaler
Helen Frankenthaler
Helen Frankenthaler is an American abstract expressionist painter. She is a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting. Having exhibited her work in six decades she has spanned several generations of abstract painters while continuing to produce vital and ever-changing new work...
, Marguerite Gérard
Marguerite Gérard
-Notes:...
, Nan Goldin
Nan Goldin
Nancy "Nan" Goldin is an American photographer.-Life and work:Goldin was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in the Boston, Massachusetts suburb of Lexington, to middle class Jewish parents whose ideas, moderately liberal and progressive, were put to the test when on April 12, 1965 their eldest...
, Nancy Graves
Nancy Graves
Nancy Graves was an American sculptor, painter, printmaker, and sometime-filmmaker known for her focus on natural phenomena like camels or maps of the moon...
, Grace Hartigan
Grace Hartigan
Grace Hartigan was an American Abstract Expressionist painter of the New York School in the 1950s.-Biography and early career:...
, Frida Kahlo, Angelica Kauffmann
Angelica Kauffmann
Maria Anna Angelika/Angelica Katharina Kauffman was a Swiss-Austrian Neoclassical painter. Kauffman is the preferred spelling of her name; it is the form she herself used most in signing her correspondence, documents and paintings.- Early years :She was born at Chur in Graubünden, Switzerland,...
, Käthe Kollwitz
Käthe Kollwitz
Käthe Kollwitz was a German painter, printmaker, and sculptor whose work offered an eloquent and often searing account of the human condition in the first half of the 20th century...
, Lee Krasner
Lee Krasner
Lee Krasner was an influential abstract expressionist painter in the second half of the 20th century. On October 25, 1945, she married artist Jackson Pollock, who was also influential in the Abstract Expressionism movement....
, Justine Kurland
Justine Kurland
Justine Kurland is a fine art photographer based in New York.-Education:Kurland earned her B.F.A. from the School of Visual Arts in 1996. She went on to Yale University where she studied with Gregory Crewdson and Philip-Lorca diCorcia and graduated with an M.F.A...
, Marie Laurencin
Marie Laurencin
Marie Laurencin was a French painter and printmaker. -Biography:Laurencin was born in Paris, where she was raised by her mother and lived much of her life. At 18, she studied porcelain painting in Sèvres...
, Hung Liu
Hung Liu
Hung Liu in Changchun, China is a Chinese-American contemporary artist.Hung Liu was born in the People's Republic, China and emigrated to the United States in 1984. She attended Beijing Teachers College in 1975 and studied mural painting as a graduate student at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in...
, Judith Leyster
Judith Leyster
Judith Jans Leyster was a Dutch Golden Age painter. She was one of three significant women artists in Dutch Golden Age painting; the other two, Rachel Ruysch and Maria van Oosterwijk, were specialized painters of flower still-lifes, while Leyster painted genre works, a few portraits, and a...
, Maria Martinez
Maria Martinez
Maria Montoya Martinez was a Native American artist who created internationally known pottery...
, Maria Sibylla Merian
Maria Sibylla Merian
Maria Sibylla Merian was a naturalist and scientific illustrator who studied plants and insects and made detailed paintings about them...
, Joan Mitchell
Joan Mitchell
Joan Mitchell was a "second generation" abstract expressionist painter. She was an essential member of the American Abstract expressionist movement, even though much of her career took place in France. Along with Lee Krasner, Grace Hartigan, and Helen Frankenthaler she was one of her era's few...
, Gabriele Münter
Gabriele Münter
Gabriele Münter was a German expressionist painter who was at the forefront of the Munich avant-garde in the early 20th century. Artists and writers associated with German Expressionism shared a rebellious attitude toward the materialism and mores of German imperial and bourgeois society...
, Elizabeth Murray
Elizabeth Murray
Elizabeth Murray may refer to:*Lady Elizabeth Murray, daughter of the 2nd Earl of Mansfield*Elizabeth Murray , American artist*Elizabeth Murray, wife of Edward Robbins and great-great grandmother to Franklin D. Roosevelt...
, Alice Neel
Alice Neel
Alice Neel was an American artist known for her oil on canvas portraits of friends, family, lovers, poets, artists and strangers...
, Louise Nevelson, Sarah Miriam Peale
Sarah Miriam Peale
Sarah Miriam Peale was an American portrait painter, one of the notable family of artists descended from the miniaturist and still-life painter James Peale, who was her father. She is noted as a portrait painter, mainly of politicians and military figures...
, Clara Peeters, Lilla Cabot Perry
Lilla Cabot Perry
Lilla Cabot Perry was an American artist who worked in the Impressionist style, rendering portraits and landscapes in the free form manner of her mentor, Claude Monet. Perry was an early advocate of the French Impressionist style and contributed to its reception in the United States...
, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
Jaune Quick-To-See Smith
Jaune Quick-To-See Smith is a Native American contemporary artist. Notably her work is held in the collections of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Museum of Modern Art in New York City.- Biography :Born in 1940...
, Rachel Ruysch
Rachel Ruysch
Rachel Ruysch was a Dutch artist who specialized in still-life paintings of flowers, one of only three significant women artists in Dutch Golden Age painting, of whom Maria van Oosterwijk was also a flower painter, and Judith Leyster mainly not .She was born in The...
, Elisabetta Sirani
Elisabetta Sirani
Elisabetta Sirani was an Italian Baroque painter whose father was the painter Giovanni Andrea Sirani of the School of Bologna-Biography:...
, Joan Snyder
Joan Snyder
Joan Snyder is an American painter from New York. She is a MacArthur Fellow and a Guggenheim Fellow. Her paintings have been exhibited at several museums, including the de Saisset Museum and the Jewish Museum.-Painting styles:...
, Lilly Martin Spencer
Lilly Martin Spencer
Lilly Martin Spencer was one of the most popular and widely reproduced American female genre painters in the mid-nineteenth century. She painted domestic scenes, women and children in a warm happy atmosphere...
, Alma Thomas, Suzanne Valadon
Suzanne Valadon
Suzanne Valadon was a French painter born Marie-Clémentine Valadon at Bessines-sur-Gartempe, Haute-Vienne, France. In 1894, Valadon became the first woman painter admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts...
, and Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun.
Library and Research Center
The Library and Research Center (LRC) provides researchers with information about women visual artists from all time periods and nationalities. It is open to scholars, students, researchers, curators, museum professionals, and the general public. The LRC collection includes 18,500 volumes of books and exhibition catalogues, 50 periodical titles, and research files on 18,000 individual women artists. These files include resumes, correspondence, reproductions, articles, and other ephemeral materials. The Arts and Entertainment Network Media Library holds approximately 500 videos, DVDs, audio tapes, and other audiovisual materials, including examples of video art, interviews with women artists, documentaries, and films directed by women.Also available to researchers are The Nelleke Nix and Marianne Huber Collection: The Frida Kahlo Papers consists of more than 360 unpublished letters, postcards, notes, clippings, printed matter, and drawings relating to the artist’s life and work.
In spring 2007, the LRC launched Clara: Database of Women Artists®, a user-friendly searchable interface for biographic information on close to 18,000 historic and contemporary women artists from around the world. Integrated within the NMWA Web site, Clara is accessible to users around the world.
Exhibitions
Beginning in 1987 with American Women Artists, 1830–1930, NMWA has presented more than 200 exhibitions, including:- Louise Dahl-Wolfe: A Retrospective Exhibition (Sept. 22, 1987-Nov. 23, 1987)
- Camille Claudel: 1864-1943 (April 25, 1988-May 31, 1988)
- Women Artists of the New Deal Era: A Selection of Prints and Drawings (Oct. 18, 1988-Jan. 8, 1989)
- Bourke-White: A Retrospective (June 25, 1989-Aug. 25, 1989)
- Constance Stuart LarrabeeConstance Stuart LarrabeeConstance Stuart Larrabee was a photographer best known for her images of South Africa. She was South Africa's first female war correspondent during World War II.-References:*...
: WWII Photo Journal (Sept. 19, 1989-Nov. 26, 1989) - Rosa Bonheur: Selected Works from American Collections (Dec. 12, 1989-March 11, 1990)
- Lilla Cabot Perry: An American Impressionist (Sept. 28, 1990-Jan. 20, 1991)
- Lola Alvarez Bravo: Portraits of Frida Kahlo (Nov. 25, 1991-March 15, 1992)
- Kathe Kollwitz: A Self-Portrait (May 3, 1992-Aug. 16, 1992)
- FOREFRONT: Pat Oleszko (Oct. 11, 1992-Jan. 18, 1993)
- Carrie Mae WeemsCarrie Mae WeemsCarrie Mae Weems is an award-winning photographer and artist. Her photographs, films, and videos have been displayed in over 50 exhibitions in the United States and abroad and focus on serious issues that face African Americans today, such as racism, gender relations, politics, and personal identity...
(Jan. 7, 1993-March 21, 1993) - ULTRAMODERN: The Art of Contemporary Brazil (April 2, 1993-Aug. 1, 1993)
- FOREFRONT: HOLLIS SIGLER-Breast Cancer Journal: Walking with the Ghosts of My Grandmothers (Sept. 2, 1993-Nov. 14, 1993)
- The First Generation: Women and Video, 1970-75 (Nov. 20, 1993-Jan. 2, 1994)
- Judith Leyster: “Leading Star” (Dec. 20, 1993-April 3, 1994)
- Forces of Change: Artists of the Arab World (Feb. 7, 1994-May 15, 1994)
- Esther Mahlangu, South African Muralist: The BMW Art Car and Related Works (Sept. 15, 1994-Nov. 13, 1994)
- Mary Ellen MarkMary Ellen MarkMary Ellen Mark is an American photographer known for her photojournalism, portraiture, and advertising photography. She has had 16 collections of her work published and has been exhibited at galleries and museums worldwide. She has received numerous accolades, including three Robert F...
: 25 Years (Oct. 13, 1994-Jan. 16, 1995) - Sofonisba AnguissolaSofonisba AnguissolaSofonisba Anguissola was an Italian painter of the Renaissance.-The Anguissola family:...
: A Renaissance Woman (April 7, 1995-June 15, 1995) - Artful Advocacy: Cartoons from the Woman Suffrage Movement (Aug. 25, 1995-Jan. 7, 1996)
- Latin American Women Artists, 1915-1995 (Feb. 8, 1996-April 29, 1996)
- A History of Women Photographers (Feb. 13, 1997-May 4, 1997)
- The Legacy of Generations: Pottery by American Indian Women (Oct. 9, 1997-Jan. 11, 1998)
- Woven by the Grandmothers: Nineteenth-Century Navajo Textiles from the National Museum of the American IndianNational Museum of the American IndianThe National Museum of the American Indian is a museum operated under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution that is dedicated to the life, languages, literature, history, and arts of the native Americans of the Western Hemisphere...
(Nov. 1, 1997-Jan. 11, 1998) - Eulabee DixEulabee DixEulabee Dix was an American artist, who favoured the medium of watercolours on ivory to paint portrait miniatures...
(1878-1961) (Dec. 9, 1997-Aug. 23, 1998)
- Lavinia Fontana of Bologna (1552-1614) (Feb. 5, 1998-June 7, 1998)
- Berenice AbbottBerenice AbbottBerenice Abbott , born Bernice Abbott, was an American photographer best known for her black-and-white photography of New York City architecture and urban design of the 1930s.-Youth:...
’s Changing New York, 1935-39 (Oct. 22, 1998-Jan. 19, 1999) - The Narrative Thread: Women’s Embroidery from Rural India (Feb. 4, 1999-May 9, 1999)
- Defining Eye: Women Photographers of the 20th Century (Oct. 7, 1999-Jan. 9, 2000)
- The Magic of Remedios VaroRemedios VaroRemedios Varo Uranga was a Spanish-Mexican, para-surrealist painter and anarchist. She was born María de los Remedios Varo Uranga in Anglès, Girona, Spain in 1908. During the Spanish Civil War she fled to Paris where she was greatly influenced by the surrealist movement...
(Feb. 10, 2000-May 29, 2000) - Julie Taymor: Playing With Fire (Nov. 16, 2000–Feb. 4, 2001)
- Grandma MosesGrandma MosesAnna Mary Robertson Moses , better known as "Grandma Moses", was a renowned American folk artist. She is often cited as an example of an individual successfully beginning a career in the arts at an advanced age. Although her family and friends called her either "Mother Moses" or "Grandma Moses,"...
in the 21st Century (March 15, 2001–June 10, 2001) - Places of Their Own: Emily CarrEmily CarrEmily Carr was a Canadian artist and writer heavily inspired by the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. One of the first painters in Canada to adopt a post-impressionist painting style, Carr did not receive widespread recognition for her work until later in her life...
, Georgia O'KeeffeGeorgia O'KeeffeGeorgia Totto O'Keeffe was an American artist.Born near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, O'Keeffe first came to the attention of the New York art community in 1916, several decades before women had gained access to art training in America’s colleges and universities, and before any of its women artists...
, and Frida Kahlo (Feb. 8, 2002–May 12, 2002) - Judy Chicago (Oct. 11, 2002-Jan. 5, 2003)
- An Imperial Collection: Women Artists from the State Hermitage Museum (Feb. 14, 2003–June 18, 2003)
- Lesley Dill: A Ten Year Survey (July 11, 2003-Sept. 14, 2003)
- Passionate Observer: Photographs by Eudora WeltyEudora WeltyEudora Alice Welty was an American author of short stories and novels about the American South. Her novel The Optimist's Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Welty was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among numerous awards. She was the first living author to have her works published...
(Oct. 27, 2003-Feb. 29, 2004) - Nordic Cool: Hot Women Designers (Apr. 23, 2004–Sept. 12, 2004)
- Berthe MorisotBerthe MorisotBerthe Morisot was a painter and a member of the circle of painters in Paris who became known as the Impressionists. She was described by Gustave Geffroy in 1894 as one of "les trois grandes dames" of Impressionism alongside Marie Bracquemond and Mary Cassatt.In 1864, she exhibited for the first...
: An Impressionist and Her Circle (Jan. 14, 2005–May 8, 2005) - Amalia Amaki: Boxes, Buttons, and the Blues (June 10, 2005-Sept. 11, 2005)
- Mónica Castillo: The Painter and the Body (Oct. 5, 2005-Jan. 22, 2006)
- Alice Neel’s Women (Oct. 28, 2005–Jan. 15, 2006)
- The Water Remembers: Paintings and Works on Paper by May Stevens 1990-2005 (Oct. 28, 2005-Jan. 15, 2006)
- Divine and Human: Women in Ancient Mexico and Peru (March 3, 2006–May 28, 2006)
- Dreaming Their Way: Australian Aboriginal Women (June 30, 2006–Sept. 24, 2006)
- The Book as Art: Twenty Years of Artists’ Books from the National Museum of Women in the Arts (Oct. 27, 2006-Feb. 4, 2007)
- Italian Women Artists from Renaissance to Baroque (March 16, 2007-July 15, 2007)
- Frida Kahlo: Public Image, Private Life. A Selection of Photographs and Letters (July 6, 2007–October 14, 2007)
- WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution (September 21, 2007–December 16, 2007)
- Paula RegoPaula RegoPaula Rego is a painter born in Portugal although she is a naturalised British citizen.-Biography:Rego was born in the Portuguese capital Lisbon, the daughter of an electrical engineer who worked for the Marconi Company. Although this gave her a comfortable middle class home, the family was...
(February 1, 2008–May 25, 2008) - Louise Nevelson: Dawn’s Wedding Feast (Feb. 22, 2008-May 18, 2008)
- Role Models: Feminine Identity in Contemporary American Photography (October 17, 2008–January 25, 2009)
- Mary Cassatt: Friends and Family (November 21, 2008–January 25, 2009)
- Picturing Progress: Hungarian Women Photographers 1900-1945 (March 20, 2009-August 23, 2009)
- Mary McFaddenMary McFaddenMary Josephine McFadden is an American fashion designer and writer.-Family:McFadden is the only daughter of Alexander Bloomfield McFadden, a cotton broker, and her mother was the former Mary Josephine Cutting, a socialite and concert pianist. Her father died in 1948, when he was killed in an...
: Goddesses (March 20, 2009–August 30, 2009) - New York Avenue Sculpture Project: Niki de Saint Phalle (opened April 28, 2010)
Public programs
NMWA hosts educational programs for all age groups to teach the public about the artistic accomplishments of women. Programs include monthly Family Days with free museum admission, and Role Model Workshops that connect teenagers with accomplished women working in the art world. Member days include curator- and artist-led tours. The Education Department is also involved in various outreach programs to area educators. For example, the 2010 "Teachers Connect" program was designed around the promotion of NMWA's Art, Books, and Creativity curriculum.The free Shenson Chamber Music Concerts support the museum’s mission of recognizing women in all areas of the arts by featuring woman musicians throughout the year. Past performers include the Ahn Trio
Ahn Trio
The Ahn Trio is a classical piano trio comprised of three sisters: Angella , Lucia and Maria . Lucia and Maria are twins. Born in Seoul, Korea, they moved to New York City in 1981 and began their training at the Juilliard School. The sisters decided to form a trio while they were earning their...
, Arianna and Eugenia Zuckerman, Ingrid Fliter
Ingrid Fliter
Ingrid Fliter is an Argentinian pianist. She began her formal piano studies with Elizabeth Westerkamp. Her first public appearance in recital was at age 11, and she made her concerto debut at the Teatro Colón at age 16....
, Sharon Ibsin and Rachel Barton Pine
Rachel Barton Pine
Rachel Barton Pine is a violinist from Chicago. Considered a child prodigy at the violin, she started playing at the age of 3 and a half. She played at many renowned venues as a child and teenager...
. NMWA’s literary programs showcase women writers by bringing in authors such as Susan Vreeland, Lisa See
Lisa See
Lisa See is an American writer and novelist. Her Chinese-American family has had a great impact on her life and work. Her books include On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family and the novels Flower Net , The Interior , Dragon Bones , Snow Flower and the...
, Maxine Hong Kingston
Maxine Hong Kingston
Maxine Hong Kingston is a Chinese American author and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, where she graduated with a BA in English in 1962. Kingston has written three novels and several works of non-fiction about the experiences of Chinese immigrants living in the United...
, Naomi Shihab Nye
Naomi Shihab Nye
Naomi Shihab Nye is a poet, songwriter, and novelist. She was born to a Palestinian father and American mother. Although she regards herself as a "wandering poet", she refers to San Antonio as her home.-Career:...
, Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates is an American author. Oates published her first book in 1963 and has since published over fifty novels, as well as many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction...
, and Mireille Guiliano
Mireille Guiliano
Mireille Guiliano is a French-American author.Mireille wrote French Women Don't Get Fat which reached #1 on the New York Times "Advice, How-to and Miscellaneous: Hardcover bestseller" list, followed by French Women for All Seasons...
. In addition, NMWA has offered film screenings of works by respected women directors and screenwriters including Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou is an American author and poet who has been called "America's most visible black female autobiographer" by scholar Joanne M. Braxton. She is best known for her series of six autobiographical volumes, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first and most highly...
, Barbara Hammer
Barbara Hammer
Barbara Hammer is an American filmmaker in the genre of experimental films and a professor at European Graduate School in Saas-Fee.-Biography:...
, Cheryl Dunye
Cheryl Dunye
Cheryl Dunye is a film director, producer, screenwriter, editor and actress. Dunye is a lesbian and her work often concerns themes of race, sexuality and gender, particularly issues relating to black lesbians.Dunye was born in Liberia...
, Eva López Sánchez, Miranda July
Miranda July
Miranda July is a performing artist, writer, actress and film director. Born Miranda Jennifer Grossinger, she works under the surname of "July," which can be traced to a character from a "girlzine" Miranda created with high school friend Johanna Fateman, called Snarla.- Background :Miranda...
, Bette Gordon, and Julie Taymor
Julie Taymor
Julie Taymor is an American director of theater, opera and film. Taymor's work has received many accolades from critics, and she has earned two Tony Awards out of four nominations, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design, an Emmy Award and an Academy Award nomination for Original Song...
.
Operations
The museum is located at 1250 New York AvenueNew York Avenue
The following roads are named New York Avenue:*New York Avenue **NoMa – Gallaudet University , formerly New York Avenue – Florida Avenue – Gallaudet University*New York Avenue *New York Avenue in Queens, now Guy R...
and H Street N.W. The closest Washington Metro
Washington Metro
The Washington Metro, commonly called Metro, and unofficially Metrorail, is the rapid transit system in Washington, D.C., United States, and its surrounding suburbs. It is administered by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority , which also operates Metrobus service under the Metro name...
stations are Metro Center or McPherson Square
McPherson Square
McPherson Square is a square in downtown Washington, D.C.. It is bound by K Street Northwest to the north, Vermont Avenue NW on the East, Eye Street NW on the south, and 15th Street NW on the West; it is one block northeast of Lafayette Park. It is served by the McPherson Square station of the...
stations. The museum is open Monday–Saturday 10 a.m.–5 p.m. and Sundays noon–5 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for students and visitors 65 and over, and free for members and visitors 18 and under. Admission is free to all on the first Sunday of every month. The NMWA Museum Shop is open the same hours at the Museum.
See also
- House of the TempleHouse of the TempleThe House of the Temple is a Masonic temple in Washington, D.C., United States that serves as the headquarters of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Southern Jurisdiction, U.S.A...
, another Masonic Temple building on 16th Street, nearby - Women artistsWomen artistsWomen artists have been involved in making art in most times and places. Often certain certain media are associated with women, particularly textile arts; however, these gender roles in art change in different cultures and communities...
External links
- National Museum of Women in the Arts
- Clara: Database of Women Artists: NMWA's ongoing database project of women artists.