Artist and children’s book author Faith Ringgold and Wilhelmina Cole Holladay, founder of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, will receive the Moore College of Art & Design’s Third Annual Visionary Woman Award on Wednesday, September 14.

The festivities will kick off an exhibition of Ringgold’s work at the Galleries at Moore from Sept. 16 to Oct. 30.

“Faith Ringgold’s words and images have captured the imaginations of generations of young Americans,” said Moore President Happy Craven Fernandez, in announcing the award recipients. “Wilhelmina Cole Holladay confronted the lack of recognition of women artists here and around the world and created a magnificent edifice to showcase their work.

“Both Ringgold and Holladay are truly visionary women,” Fernandez said.

In addition to being this year’s Visionary Woman Award honorees, both women have received honorary doctorates from Moore, Ringgold in 1986, Holladay in 1988.

Ringgold was born in Harlem in 1930 and spent much of her early career as a New York City public school art teacher. She rose to national prominence with the publication in 1991 of Tar Beach, a children’s book which she wrote and illustrated. An autobiographical tale of a family that sought relief from the summer heat on the roof of their tenement building, Tar Beach was named a Caldecott Honor Book in 1991.

Holladay founded the National Museum for Women in the Arts in 1981 after she and her husband, Wallace, were continually frustrated in their search for work by woman artists.

“Wherever we went . . . they would always tell us, ‘we have nothing,’ when we asked to see work by woman artists,” Holladay said.

The Visionary Woman Award presentation will cap a daylong celebration at Moore beginning with the 2 p.m. Elizabeth Greenfield Zeidman Lecture featuring a panel discussion with both Ringgold and Holladay.

The previous recipients of the Visionary Woman Award are:

As the only women’s college for the visual arts in the nation, Moore College of Art & Design’s nine Bachelor of Fine Arts programs set the standard of excellence in educating women for careers in a wide range of art and design fields. Moore students enjoy participating in the cultural richness of Center City Philadelphia. They experience a singular educational experience within a small, supportive community and learn from a dedicated faculty of exceptional artists, designers and scholars. Connecting to and drawing from the strengths of Moore’s undergraduate programs are The Galleries at Moore, professional programs for adult women and men, and the Young Artists Workshop for girls and boys in grades 1-12. For more current news and information about Moore, check the website at www.moore.edu.