WASHINGTON—This fall the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) presents a lineup of innovative online programs to connect visitors to women artists. Join us for weekly Art Chats, watch online performances by local musicians and participate in an exhibition exploring the intergenerational influence of food.
The information below is current as of August 2020. For more information, visit the museum’s online calendar.
Art Chats
Art Chats @ 5
Fridays, October 2–January 29, 5–5:45 p.m.
Jump-start your weekend with art! Join NMWA educators online every Friday for informal 30-minute art chats about selected artworks in the collection. Discuss a new sampling of art each week. You can even enjoy your favorite happy hour drink or snack during the sessions. Free. Registration required and limited to 20 participants each week. Register online. Registration opens approximately two weeks before each program. There are no Art Chats on November 27, December 25 or January 1.
Virtual Happy Hour: Alma Woodsey Thomas Birthday Celebration
Tuesday, September 22, 5:30–6:30 p.m.
Join NMWA members for a virtual happy hour to celebrate Alma Woodsey Thomas’s birthday. We will make a specialty cocktail in her honor, share artworks and stories and explore the museum’s collection and archives for all things Alma. Donation-based; contribute what you can upon registration. Registration required. Reserve online beginning September 1.
Fresh Talk
Place and Power
Sunday, November 15, 4:30–6 p.m.
To what degree are identities shaped by food exchanges—from cultivation and harvest to preparation and consumption? In this virtual program, culinary historian Laura Shapiro and interdisciplinary artist Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz will discuss questions of global food access, gender, class and labor. Additional speakers to be announced. $10 general; $5 members, seniors, students. Reservations required. Reserve online.
Cultural Capital Programs
2020 Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital
October 2020, date to be announced
NMWA and The Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital are hosting an online viewing of a film highlighting women and the environment, available through the Women, Arts, and Social Change newsletter in October 2020. Title to be announced. Free. No reservations required. Sign up for the newsletter here. This Cultural Capital program is presented by the museum’s Women, Arts, and Social Change initiative in partnership with the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital.
Special Events
NMWA Book Club
December 11, 12–1 p.m.
Join us for a deep dive into Nell Painter’s book Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over (2018). This program, presented presented by NMWA’s Women, Arts, and Social Change programming initiative and Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center, will explore the ambition and inspiration that drove a lauded scholar to start over and pursue her creative goals. Free. Reservations required. Reserve online.
The Tea
Fridays, October 2, November 6, and December 4, 12–1 p.m.
In this new online series, women musicians perform original work via livestream on the museum’s social media channels on the first Friday of the month. Each session includes a short interview, conducted over a cup of tea, which explores the artist’s creative process. Free. No reservations required. Stream live here.
- October 2: Tashera
After discovering her love for harmony and songwriting, Tashera released the singles “Fall Alone” (2018) and “Get Up” (2019). She is currently working on the release of her first EP. - November 6: Heidi Martin
A vocal music major in jazz under the direction of Professor Calvin Jones at the University of the District of Columbia, Martin was a finalist in the London International Vocalist Competition and has written, directed and produced music programs for D.C. Public Schools and Montgomery County Public Schools. She was contributing composer for the PBS documentary Revolution ’67 by Jerome and Marylou Bongiorno. She has released two albums: Hide (2005) and See Hear, Love… (2011). - December 4: VeVe Marley
VeVe Marley is a D.C.-based singer/songwriter and guitarist whose music blends elements of folk, Afrobeat, R&B and hip-hop to create dreamy, soulful vibes while speaking on issues of identity, spirituality, racism and the Black experience. Marley has performed and recorded since 2013. Her most recent project, with her band VeVe and Tha Rebels, is entitled “The EP.”
In the Galleries
Free Community Days
Sundays, October 4, October 18, November 1 and November 15, 12–5 p.m.
The first and third Sundays of every month through November 2020 are free Community Days for the public. Visitors will have the opportunity to explore current exhibitions as well as the museum’s collection. Free. Advance reservation of timed tickets required. Reserve at nmwa.org/tickets.
NMWA Late Hours
Wednesday, October 21 and Monday, November 16, 5–7 p.m.
Visit NMWA during special late hours. Visit the collection galleries and the exhibition Paper Routes: Women to Watch 2020 (Oct. 8, 2020–January 18, 2021). $10 general; $8 seniors, students; free for members and youth 18 and under. Advance purchase of timed tickets required. Reserve at nmwa.org/tickets.
On Demand
Artist Studio Tours
Available September 30
Visit the studios of artists featured in the upcoming exhibition Paper Routes—Women to Watch 2020, the sixth installment of NMWA’s Women to Watch exhibition series, an innovative collaboration between the museum and its national and international outreach committees. Get a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the artists’ processes and the innovative ways they approach the exhibition theme: paper.
- Georgia Russell, represented by Les Amis du NMWA
- Natasha Bowdoin, represented by the Texas State Committee
- Lucha Rodríguez, represented by the Georgia Committee
- Hyeyoung Shin, represented by the Greater Kansas City Area Committee
- Natalia Revilla, represented by the Peru Committee
- Annie Lopez, represented by the Arizona Committee
View on demand beginning September 30 here.
Exhibitions
Paper Routes—Women to Watch 2020
October 8, 2020–January 18, 2021
Paper Routes, the sixth installment of NMWA’s Women to Watch exhibition series, showcases the transformation of this ubiquitous material into complex works of art. Artists use paper not merely as a support for drawings, prints, or photographs, but as a medium itself. Ranging in size from minutely detailed, small-scale works to large, sculptural installations, this exhibition explores artists’ ability to transform paper into a surprising array of shapes and structures. Begun in 2008, Women to Watch is a dynamic collaboration between the museum and its national and international outreach committees.
Paper Routes—Women to Watch 2020 is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts and sponsored by participating committees in Argentina, Arizona, Arkansas, Northern California, Southern California, Canada, Chile, France, Georgia, Germany, Italy, the Greater Kansas City Area, Massachusetts, the Mid-Atlantic Region, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Peru, Portugal, Spain, Texas and the United Kingdom.
The exhibition is made possible by Northern Trust with additional funding provided by the Clara M. Lovett Emerging Artists Fund and the Sue J. Henry and Carter G. Phillips Exhibition Fund. Further support is provided by Bayer AG, the Council for Canadian American Relations, and Luso-American Development Foundation.
The museum extends appreciation to the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Embassy of Italy with the Italian Cultural Institute in Washington, D.C.; and the Embassy of Peru in the U.S.
Special thanks to the Mississippi State Committee and San Francisco Advocacy for NMWA for their support of the Paper Routes catalogue.
Julie Chen: True to Life
October 12, 2020–February 12, 2021
Open by appointment only, Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; email lrc@nmwa.org to schedule.
Renowned book artist Julie Chen combines highly complex structures and poetic reflections to create ambitious artists’ books that raise questions about time, memory and human survival. Chen carefully engineers books in ways that create an unmistakable, powerful unity of text and object. Julie Chen: True to Life will include a selection of the California-based artist’s captivating works from throughout her 33-year career.
RECLAMATION: Recipes, Remedies, and Rituals
Online beginning January 18, 2021
RECLAMATION an online participatory exhibition and ingredient archive, examines food as a creative medium and connective tool for exploring intergenerational and intercultural experiences. Through a focus on ingredients used in cooking, curatives and ceremonies, this exhibition re-presents the traditional role of women in providing sustenance and healing. The exhibition’s innovative design centers around the kitchen table, the central domestic object for gatherings of family and friends. Nine artists will activate their kitchen tables, sharing photographs, videos and stories of how they use this most important domestic object. Museum visitors will leave their mark on the exhibition by sharing recipes, anecdotes and reflections related to food through a digital ingredient archive. RECLAMATION opens a year-long season of programming that examines the relationship between food, art, and women as part of the Women, Arts, and Social Change initiative.
The Women, Arts, and Social Change public programs initiative is made possible through leadership gifts from Denise Littlefield Sobel, the Davis/Dauray Family Fund, the Revada Foundation of the Logan Family and the Susan and Jim Swartz Public Programs Fund. Additional funding is provided by the Bernstein Family Foundation. This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
New York Avenue Sculpture Project: Betsabeé Romero
September 28, 2018–May 2, 2021
The dynamic works of Mexico City-based artist Betsabeé Romero (b. 1963)form the newest chapter in NMWA’s public art program, the New York Avenue Sculpture Project, established in 2010. Signals of a Long Road Together comprises four sculptures developed expressly for this installation. Using a process similar to tattooing, Romero carves figures and intricate patterns into the sidewalls and treads of tires, which are then filled with gleaming metallic paint. The tires are assembled into totemic structures that speak to themes of human migration and the natural environment. Romero’s sculptures are the first in the New York Avenue Sculpture Project to incorporate interior lighting, which gives each piece an otherworldly glow after dark.
Visitor Information
HOURS: 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon–5 p.m. Sunday. Closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
LOCATION: 1250 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20005, two blocks north of Metro Center.
ADMISSION: $10 for adults, $8 for visitors 65 and over and students and free for NMWA members and youth 18 and under. Free Community Days take place on the first and third Sundays of each month.
INFORMATION: nmwa.org, 202-783-5000
SOCIAL MEDIA: Broad Strokes blog, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.