National Museum of Women in the ArtsExhibit Square Feet

May 10, 2022 Post a Comment

United States historic place


Masonic Temple
U.S. National Register of Historic Places

National Museum of Women in the Arts
Show map of Central Washington, D.C. Evidence map of the United States
Location	1250 New York Ave NW Washington, D.C.
Coordinates	38°54′0″N 77°1′46″West / 38.90000°N 77.02944°W / 38.90000; -77.02944 Coordinates: 38°54′0″N 77°i′46″W / 38.90000°North 77.02944°W / 38.90000; -77.02944
Area	0.3 acres (0.12 ha)
Built	1903
Architect	Forest, Donn & Deming
Architectural style	Classical Revival
NRHP referenceNo.	86002920^[1]
Added to NRHP	February 18, 1987

The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), located in Washington, D.C., is "the first museum in the globe solely dedicated" to championing women through the arts. NMWA was incorporated in 1981 by Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay. Since opening in 1987, the museum has caused a drove of more than v,500 works by more than ane,000 artists, ranging from the 16th century to today. The drove includes works by Frida Kahlo, Mary Cassatt, Alma Woodsey Thomas, Élisabeth Louise Vigée-LeBrun, and Amy Sherald. NMWA also holds the only painting by Frida Kahlo in Washington, D.C.

The museum occupies an former Masonic Temple, a building listed on the U.S. National Register of Celebrated Places.

History [edit]

The museum was founded to reform traditional histories of art. Information technology is dedicated to discovering and making known women artists who take been overlooked, erased, or unacknowledged, and assuring the place of women in contemporary fine art. The museum'southward founder, Wilhelmina Cole Holladay, and her husband Wallace F. Holladay began collecting art in the 1960s, just as scholars were beginning to talk over the under-representation of women in museum collections and major fine art exhibitions. Impressed past a 17th-century Flemish still life painting by Clara Peeters that they saw in Europe, they sought out data on Peeters and found that the definitive fine 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.^[2]

The National Museum of Women in the Arts was incorporated in December 1981 equally a private, not-profit museum, and the Holladay donation became the core of the institution'due south permanent collection. After purchasing and extensively renovating a sometime Masonic Temple, NMWA opened in April 1987 with the inaugural exhibition American Women Artists, 1830–1930.^[2] ^[three] To underscore its delivery to increasing the attention given to women in all disciplines, NMWA deputed 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.^[4]

As of 2022, Director Susan Fisher Sterling heads a staff of more than than 50 people.^[5]

Edifice [edit]

In 1983, NMWA purchased a landmark 78,810 square feet (7,322 m²) quondam Masonic temple in the Renaissance Revival style to business firm its works, under its first director Anne-Imelda Radice. After extensive renovations that included the improver of the two dramatic marble stairways linking the commencement floor and mezzanine, the museum opened to the public on April 7, 1987. In Nov 1997, the Elisabeth A. Kasser Fly was opened, adding two new galleries, a larger museum shop, and a reception room. The unabridged facility 84,110 square feet (7,814 k²). The entire facility is now 84,110 foursquare anxiety (vii,814 m²).^[half-dozen]

The museum closed in August 2021 for a major renovation, with plans to reopen in late 2023. Key improvements include enlarged gallery space, a new destination for researchers and instruction programs, enhanced amenities and accessibility for visitors as well as infrastructure and storage upgrades to improve the long-term conservation and security of the museum's collection.^[5] ^[seven]

Interior of the principal floor

Wilhelmina Cole Holladay [edit]

Wilhelmina Cole Holladay was 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 made it her mission to bring to the forefront the accomplishments of women through collecting, exhibiting and researching women artists of all nationalities and fourth dimension periods.

Holladay created private committees of over 1,000 volunteers from 27 states and seven countries, to give educational opportunities to children through collaborations with schools and other customs groups, as well every bit provided opportunities for adults to participate and encourage art in local communities across the earth.

Wilhelmina Cole Holladay'southward interest in fine art was sparked as a student at Elmira College in New York, where she studied art history, followed by graduate work at the Academy of Paris. She is listed in Who'south Who of American Women, Who's Who in American Fine art, Who'southward Who in the Earth, and she held many honorary degrees and achievement awards for her piece of work in the arts customs. In 2006 she received the National Medal of Arts from the United States and the Légion d'honneur from the French authorities. In 2007 Holladay received the Gilded Medal for the Arts from the National Arts Guild in New York Metropolis.

Holladay died on March six, 2021, at her home in Washington, D.C. She was 98.

New York Avenue Sculpture Project [edit]

The museum sponsored a serial of installations on New York Avenue in Washington, DC from 13th Street to 9th Street, in the heart of Mount Vernon Foursquare. The indicate of the effort was to bring "character" to an area where "in that location is a lot of good stuff going on," due to revitalization programs in the neighborhood.

Niki de Saint Phalle'due south works, four in full, were the first in a serial of installations.^[8] The installation of de Saint Phalle's iconic pop art works was meant as a contrast to the traditional sculpture that graces the streets and squares of Washington. All 5 major median strips were made into "sculpture islands," as described by National Museum of Women in the Art'southward managing director Susan Fisher Sterling. Some other inspiration for the project came from the lack of innovative contemporary fine art in Washington, encouraging the evolution of the surface area.^[8]

The project was 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, and the D.C. Department of Transportation.^[nine]

The works remained up for one yr.^[10]

Drove [edit]

The collection currently contains more than than four,500 works in a variety of styles and media, spanning from the 16th century to present day. Among the primeval works is Lavinia Fontana'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,^[xi] and more than i,000 unique and express edition artists' books.^[12]

Nearly one,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, Sonia Gechtoff, Marguerite Gérard, Nan Goldin, Nancy Graves, Grace Hartigan, Frida Kahlo, Angelica Kauffman, Käthe Kollwitz, Lee Krasner, Justine Kurland, Bettye Lane, 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, Amy Sherald, and Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun.

Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center [edit]

The Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center (LRC) provides researchers with information about women visual artists from all fourth dimension periods and nationalities.^[xiii] Information technology is open to scholars, students, researchers, curators, museum professionals, and the general public. The LRC collection includes xviii,500 volumes of books and exhibition catalogues, 50 periodical titles, and inquiry files on eighteen,000 private 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, sound tapes, and other audiovisual materials, including examples of video art, interviews with women artists, documentaries, and films directed by women.

As well available to researchers are The Nelleke Nix and Marianne Huber Collection: The Frida Kahlo Papers consists of more 360 unpublished letters, postcards, notes, clippings, printed affair, and drawings relating to the artist's life and work. The LRC too holds artist Judy Chicago'southward visual archives.

In jump 2007, the LRC launched "Clara: Database of Women Artists," a user-friendly searchable interface for biographic information on close to 18,000 celebrated and gimmicky women artists from effectually the earth. Since integrated inside the NMWA web site, Clara has been decommissioned and is in the procedure of existence moved.

Exhibitions [edit]

Beginning in 1987 with American Women Artists, 1830–1930, NMWA has presented more than 200 exhibitions, including:^[14] ^[fifteen]

Sonya Clark: Tatter, Bristle, and Mend (three/3/2021–6/27/2021)
Judy Chicago—The End: A Meditation on Death and Extinction (nine/xix/2019–1/twenty/2020)
Rodarte (11/10/2018–2/10/2019)
Women House (iii/9/2018–five/28/2018)
Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Brainchild, 1960s to Today (10/13/2017–1/21/2018)
She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World (4/8/2016–vii/31/2016)
Picturing Mary: Woman, Female parent, Idea (12/v/2014–4/12/2015)
Royalists to Romantics: Women Artists from the Louvre, Versailles, and Other French National Collections (ii/24/2012–seven/29/2012)
Women Who Stone: Vision, Passion, Power (9/7/2012–i/6/2013)
Loïs Mailou Jones : A Life in Vibrant Color (10/9/2010–ane/nine/2011)WACK! Fine art and the Feminist Revolution (9/21/2007–12/16/2007)
Dreaming Their Way: Australian Aboriginal Women (vi/30/2006–9/24/2006)
An Imperial Collection: Women Artists from the Land Hermitage Museum (ii/fourteen/ 2003 – 6/18/2003)
Places of Their Ain: Emily Carr, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Frida Kahlo (2/eight/2002–5/12/2002)
Julie Taymor : Playing With Fire (xi/sixteen/2000–2/4/2001)
The Magic of Remedios Varo (two/10/2000–v/29/2000)
Women to Watch (ongoing)

The Women to Watch exhibition series is a collaboration between NMWA and its national and international committees. These exhibitions, which have place every few years, feature artists from the committees' regions and focus on a specific medium or theme chosen past NMWA'south curators.^[16]

Public programs [edit]

Wikipedia edit-a-thon held at the museum in 2014

The museum presents public programs including hands-on workshops, creative person conversations, gallery talks, art history lectures, and tours.^[17]

NMWA offers arts-integration instructor training through its Art, Books, and Creativity (ABC) curriculum.^[18]

The museum'southward Women, Arts, and Social Modify (WASC) initiative aims to facilitate conversations almost social and political issues affecting women. The initiative's Fresh Talk series invites the public to converse with women in the arts also as other fields.^[19]

Outreach Committees [edit]

The museum created its network of national and international committees in 1984. As of 2022, there are 28 outreach committees with over iii,000 members in the United states and around the world.^[17]

The committees promote the museum's mission, advocate for regional women artists, and serve equally NMWA ambassadors.^[17]

The committees help to present the museum's Women to Lookout exhibition series which features emerging or underrepresented artists from u.s. and countries where committees exist.

2021-2023 renovations [edit]

Every bit of August 2021, the museum is temporarily closed every bit it undergoes a $66 million renovation. The museum will reopen to the public in 2023.^[vii]

Operations [edit]

The museum is located at 1250 New York Artery and H Street N.W. The closest Washington Metro stations are Metro Center or McPherson Square stations. Prior to the 2021-2023 renovation project, the museum was open Monday–Saturday ten a.m.–5 p.one thousand. and Sundays noon–five p.one thousand. Access was $10 for adults, $8 for students and visitors 65 and over, and gratis for members and visitors 18 and under. Admission was free to all on the start Sun of every month. The museum shop shares the same hours every bit the museum.

References [edit]

^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
^ ^a ^b "Wilhelmina Holladay". www.arts.gov . Retrieved 2022-05-02 .
^ "National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., United States". Google Arts & Culture . Retrieved 2022-05-02 .
^ June 1, Frank J. Oterion; 2011 (2011-06-01). "Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Goose Bumps in the Candy Shop". NewMusicBox . Retrieved 2022-05-02 . {{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^ ^a ^b "National Museum of Women in the Arts Lends Collection Highlights to National Gallery of Art During Building Renovation". world wide web.nga.gov . Retrieved 2022-05-02 .
^ "National Museum of Women in the Arts volition close for two-year renovation". The Art Newspaper - International art news and events. 2021-05-17. Retrieved 2022-05-02 .
^ ^a ^b Ables, Kelsey (July 2, 2021). "The National Museum of Women in the Arts is closing for renovation. Here's what to see before information technology does". Washington Post.
^ ^a ^b Jacqueline Trescott (February 24, 2010). "National Museum of Women in the Arts to plow D.C. corridor into sculpture aisle". Fashion. The Washington Post. Retrieved 8 Feb 2011.
^ Michelle Cragle (2010). "National Museum of Women in the Arts Announces Sculpture Project". Printing Eye. Niki Charitable Art Foundation. Archived from the original on 2010-03-06. Retrieved 8 February 2011.
^ Blake Gopnik (April 28, 2010). "Sculptures add colour to New York Avenue, but are they art?". Fashion. The Washington Mail service. Retrieved eight Feb 2011.
^ "Drove Highlights – National Museum of Women in the Arts". nmwa.org . Retrieved 4 August 2017.
^ "Library & Archives – National Museum of Women in the Arts". www.nmwa.org . Retrieved four August 2017.
^ "Library & Archives – National Museum of Women in the Arts". world wide web.nmwa.org . Retrieved 4 August 2017.
^ "Exhibitions – National Museum of Women in the Arts". nmwa.org . Retrieved 4 August 2017.
^ "Exhibition History (1987–2013)" (PDF). National Museum of Women in the Arts. Archived from the original (PDF) on viii March 2013. Retrieved 29 March 2013.
^ "'Women to Watch: Paper Routes' traveling exhibit opens at Fenix Arts". Fayetteville Flyer . Retrieved 2022-05-02 .
^ ^a ^b ^c Fine art museum libraries and librarianship. Joan M. Benedetti, Art Libraries Gild of North America. Lanham, Maryland. 2007. ISBN978-0-8108-5918-0. OCLC 77485821. {{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
^ "National Museum of Women in the Arts - Continuing Education". Trinity Washington University . Retrieved 2022-05-02 .
^ Cascone, Sarah (2015-09-fifteen). "A New Push for Art World Gender Equality". Artnet News . Retrieved 2022-05-02 .