WASHINGTON—NMWA recently embraced Web 2.0 launching its own blog and joining popular social networking sites.

“We launched our blog Broad Strokes on July 6, Frida Kahlo’s birthday, and are delighted by the enthusiastic response. We’ve heard from women and men around the globe who love our museum and want to feel connected to us weekly, even daily. This is possible for the first time through the blog as well as our presence on Facebook and Twitter,” says NMWA Director Susan Fisher Sterling.

Broad Strokes, a blog about the museum and art by women, offers up original content with behind-the-scenes looks at upcoming exhibitions, inside information on art in the collection, unique photos, and staff insights into working at the only museum in the world dedicated solely to women artists. With the blog and social networking, the museum is able to communicate directly with visitors, museum-goers, and fans of women artists alike. Our audience has been involved from the beginning – they chose the name through a contest held right in the blog’s comments section.

To make NMWA’s fall exhibition Telling Secrets: Codes, Captions and Conundrums more interactive, the museum will be doing its own spin on the classic caption contest complete with prizes. Images of works of art will be featured every other week throughout the run of the show from October 9, 2009 through January 10, 2010. Blog visitors are invited to create their own captions. The winning entry will receive two free passes to NMWA.

NMWA can be found at womeninthearts.wordpress.com; facebook.com/womeninthearts; and twitter.com/womeninthearts.

Web 2.0 Press Release (PDF)

About National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA)
The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), founded in 1981 and opened in 1987, is the only museum solely dedicated to celebrating the achievements of women in the visual, performing and literary arts. The museum’s permanent collection features 3,000 works from the 16th century to the present created by more than 800 artists; including Mary Cassatt, Frida Kahlo, Alma Thomas, Lee Krasner, Louise Bourgeois, Chakaia Booker along with special collections of 18th-century silver tableware and botanical prints. The museum also conducts multidisciplinary programs for diverse audiences and maintains a Library and Research Center which is accessible to the public. NMWA is located at 1250 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C., in a landmark building near the White House. It is open Monday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. and Sunday, noon–5 p.m. For information, call 202-783-5000 or visit the museum’s Web site at www.nmwa.org.