Urgent Museum Notice

Director’S Desk

View of the museum from outside showing the Neoclassical building from one corner. The building is a tan-colored stone with an arched doorway, long vertical windows, and detailed molding around the roof.
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Director’s Desk: A Recipe for Deeper Connections
Posted: November 23, 2020
Category: Director’S Desk
This holiday season, when many families will not gather in person during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, NMWA's new online exhibition RECLAMATION offers us a way to honor and share our...
An antique sepia photo portrait of a light-skinned woman with brown hair staring longingly at the camera.

Director’s Desk: The Power of Paper
Posted: November 2, 2020
Category: Director’S Desk
In our newest exhibition Paper Routes—Women to Watch 2020, now on view at NMWA, many of the featured artists explore paper’s long association with identity and advocacy, using their practices...
Dozens of pale, hollow, ghostly feet of different sizes made of translucent paper arrayed in pairs on a white background.

Director’s Desk: Welcome Back!
Posted: August 10, 2020
Category: Director’S Desk
After just over four months closed, it was so gratifying to welcome visitors back to NMWA on August 1. We have implemented new health, safety, and operations protocols so that...
Abstract painting features a vivid yellow background covered by circles, daubs, and straight and wavy lines in red, orange, cobalt, sky blue, and violet. Arcing red strokes evoke concentric circles. Straight lines in other hues radiate out from the center circle like a starburst.

Director’s Desk: Getting to Work
Posted: July 28, 2020
Category: Director’S Desk
As the pandemic continues, it is exacerbating existing inequalities in race, gender, and class. Women and women artists have always faced a balancing act between career and personal pursuits.
A light-skinned young woman with long, dark brown hair in a black, long lace sleeved dress stands confidently in a crumbling loggia. She gazes at the viewer with a serious, captivating look.

Director’s Desk: Throwback Thursday—Women to Watch
Posted: June 11, 2020
Category: Director’S Desk
More than 12 years ago, NMWA began the Women to Watch exhibition series as a way to identify and celebrate emerging and underrepresented women artists from across the country and...
A detail of contemporary paper art with a colorful painted base underneath thousands of cut alphabet letters in concentric designs.

Director’s Desk: Illuminating Frida Kahlo
Posted: May 13, 2020
Category: Director’S Desk
Frida Kahlo created intense and revealing self-portraits that chronicle, among many other subjects, her involvement with the worldwide Communist Revolution.
The artist stands in a stage-like space framed by white curtains. Beneath black hair woven with red yarn and flowers, heavy brows accent her dark-eyed gaze. Clad in a fringed, honey-toned shawl; long, pink skirt; and gold jewelry, she holds a bouquet and a handwritten letter.

Director’s Desk: Celebrating Mother’s Day Through Distinct Artistic Visions
Posted: May 6, 2020
Category: Director’S Desk
NMWA’s collection features many depictions of women and their families that offer varied perspectives and inspirations. Learn about work by artists Mary Cassatt, Elizabeth Catlett, Lola Álvarez Bravo, and Louise...
Black and white print of two dark-skinned individuals in profile. The person in the background is an older adult wearing a brimmed hat, and in the foreground and slightly to the right is a young child in profile.

Director’s Desk: Fresh Talks Bridge Art & Science
Posted: April 8, 2020
Category: Director’S Desk
Over the past five seasons, we have brought prominent women in the arts together with individuals in other fields for 25 creative conversations on gender, equity, art, the environment, identity,...

A Letter From Susan Fisher Sterling
Posted: March 25, 2020
Category: Director’S Desk
Although NMWA is temporarily closed, we stand with our communities—both here and around the world. We are available online with artists, objects, and stories to lift the spirit, inspire the...
The phrase “What if Women Ruled the World” is sculpted with neon tubes of bright yellow, in all capital letters. The letters of “WOMEN” are larger than the rest and are configured vertically.

Director’s Desk: Built to Order
Posted: January 29, 2020
Category: Director’S Desk
The artists in NMWA's “Built to Order” gallery investigate human intervention in the natural world, considering the impact of structures, cities, and societies.
Eery photograph in blue tones of a concrete silo at night.