New Worlds: Women to Watch 2024
Now on view, this exhibition features works by 28 visionary artists that reimagine the past, present alternate realities, and inspire audiences to create different futures.
Visit Us
Located in the heart of Washington, D.C., the National Museum of Women in the Arts advocates for better representation of women artists and serves as a vital center for thought leadership, community engagement, and social change.
![Two museum visitors are viewing an artwork. The artwork is a black-and-white close-up portrait of a woman's face. She has a dark skin tone and is holding her face in her hands.](https://nmwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/NMWA_Evergreen-318_44563.jpg)
Mezzanine level of the National Museum of Women in the Arts; Photo by Joy Asico-Smith for NMWA
Just 11% of all acquisitions at prominent American museums over the past decade were of work by women artists.
What We Do
Our rotating special exhibitions showcase historic and contemporary artwork. Museum programs and events foster conversations and connections that inspire change. Our collections feature more than 5,500 works from the 16th century to today created by more than 1,000 artists.
![A modern museum gallery is photographed at a wide angle. It features several inset bays in which art of various sizes and mediums is hung. In the foreground, a marble sculpture depicts an abstracted, voluptuous figure with a pregnant belly. The figure is covered in bright patterns and posed stepping forward, with raised, outstretched arms.](https://nmwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/0001_NMWA_09_26_23_8x10-at-300-dpi-jpg.jpg)
Current Exhibitions
New Worlds
![A woman in a blue dress and white face paint stands in a vast green landscape. She looks off to the side while carrying a foliage-covered lantern on her back. Two blue birds rest on her feather and wicker headdress.](https://nmwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/08_Meryl-McMaster_Lead-Me-to-Places-I-Could-Never-Find-on-My-Own-I-aspect-ratio-792-436.jpg)
Holding Ground
![An artist's book, opened to reveal a pop-up of many colorful flowers in a vase. The pages are dark with black writing.](https://nmwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Fu_cfu9_44376-aspect-ratio-792-436.jpg)
Hung Liu
![An etching of a Chinese woman working at a wooden loom. Three colorful birds sit in the foreground of the print in front of the loom. Above the loom hovers a dream-like figure of a Chinese person wearing a long yellow robe. The figure is riding on a mystical red bird.](https://nmwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/31.02_Art-Camera-aspect-ratio-792-436.jpg)
In Focus
![A rendering of the gallery entrance of sliding glass doors with gold rim and the words "In Focus: Artists at Work" in white. A light-skinned man holding the hand of a light-skinned young girl walk toward the entrance. Beyond the glass doors, there are people watching three large video screens. Art Processors' logo is in the bottom right corner.](https://nmwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Marketing_NMWA_AP_Gallery_Entrance_Interstitial_44318-aspect-ratio-792-436.jpg)
Impressive
![A black-and-white, horizontal print depicts multiple Roman-style male figures on horseback. They hold weapons or brass musical instruments and process, somewhat chaotically, towards the viewer's right.](https://nmwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/1986.25.1-GAP_78_crop-aspect-ratio-792-436.jpg)
Remix
![A horizontal canvas combines collaged paper, such as a scrap of a U.S. map, comic strip, and pictographs; cloth swatches; scrawled and dripped paint; and phrases like “It takes hard work to keep racism alive” and “Oh! Zone.” The work’s title appears in red paint right of center.](https://nmwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/1992.96a_362-aspect-ratio-792-436-1.jpg)
Related Quote
People in the art world want to think we are achieving parity more quickly than we are.”
Advocate for Gender Equity
Historically, social and cultural systems based on false beliefs about gender have hindered artists’ power, access, and agency. Gender bias is less overt today, but contemporary women artists still face many obstacles and disparities, as well as persistent underrepresentation in museum collections and exhibitions worldwide.
![](https://nmwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/2012.2-aspect-ratio-.jpg)
Related Quote
Our building symbolizes, and houses, women’s great contributions to the history of art.”
Support Our Capital Campaign
By contributing to the restoration of this historic structure, your support helps the cause and the values we champion: gender equity and social justice through the arts.
NWMA was born from an auspicious act of philanthropy, and donors make our work possible.
We ask you to join us.
![alt text](https://nmwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/NMWA-Reopening_exterior-watercolor_cropped.jpg)
Watercolor of NMWA building
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Featured Blog Post
Broad Strokes Blog
Archive Transcribe-a-thon: Frida Kahlo Papers
![A handwritten letter by Frida Kahlo in Spanish on a piece of tan colored paper that is torn in half.](https://nmwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Kahlo_-Matilde-Calderon-de_-undated-Letter-001_18328-aspect-ratio-2.25-1.jpg)