WASHINGTON—The National Museum of Women in the Arts will reopen to the public on October 21, 2023, after a major renovation. Until then, get a primer for the reopening exhibitions in virtual programs throughout the summer, then join us for a celebratory reopening weekend.
The information below is current as of May 2023. All times listed are Eastern Time. For more information, visit the museum’s online calendar. Live transcriptions are provided during most virtual programs. To request additional access services, please check the online calendar for contact information or email accessibility@nmwa.org.
In the Galleries
NMWA Now: Museum Reopening
Saturday, October 21, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.
The National Museum of Women in the Arts is open and ready to welcome you! Be among the first to explore The Sky’s the Limit exhibition and the remixed collection galleries. Join us as we celebrate the grand reopening with a day full of entertainment, art activities and spotlight tours of our special exhibitions and newly renovated space. Free. Reservations required and available in September.
Open Studio
Sunday, October 22, 11 a.m.–4 p.m.
Join NMWA educators in the museum’s new Education and Public Programs Studio for free, drop-in art-making activities inspired by artworks on view. Visitors of all ages are invited to participate. Children 12 and younger must be accompanied by an adult. Free with admission; tickets available in September.
Gallery Talk: Collection Sampler
Wednesday, October 25, 12–12:30 p.m.
Facilitated by museum staff members, these conversational thematic talks highlight three to six works on view. Led by Associate Curator Orin Zahra, this talk focuses on art in NMWA’s collection. Free. Reservations not required. Meet at Information Desk.
Virtual Programs
Art Chats @ 5
Fridays, July 7, 21, August 4, 18, September 1, 15, 29, October 6, 5–5:45 p.m.
Jump-start your weekend with art! Join NMWA educators online for informal 45-minute art chats about selected artworks in the collection. Each week the group will consider a new sampling of artworks. You can even enjoy your favorite happy hour drink or snack during the sessions. Free. Reservations required. Registration for each month’s Art Chats opens by the 20th of the preceding month.
NMWA xChange: Holding Ground
August 8, 12–12:45 p.m.
NMWA’s monthly talk show connects viewers to the museum and its mission to champion women artists. In this episode, guest curator Lynora Williams discusses the upcoming exhibition Holding Ground: Artists’ Books for the National Museum of Women in the Arts with artists Adjoa J. Burrowes and Colette Fu, who are creating works for the exhibition. Free. Reservations required.
NMWA xChange: Smartypants Behind the Camera
September 12, 12–12:45 p.m.
NMWA’s monthly talk show connects viewers to the museum and its mission to champion women artists. In this episode, NMWA hosts are joined by collaborators from the video production company Smartypants. They discuss the museum’s newly commissioned series of videos featuring eight contemporary artists represented in the collection: Ambreen Butt, Sonya Clark, Colette Fu, the Guerrilla Girls, Graciela Iturbide, Rania Matar, Delita Martin, and Alison Saar. Free. Reservations required.
For Educators
Virtual Educator Summer Camp
July 6, 11, 13, 18, 20, 25, 27, 10–11:30 a.m.
NMWA’s virtual Educator Summer Camp is designed for all educators—schoolteachers, adults supporting students learning remotely, home school instructors, scout leaders, etc. We just ask that you come with your learners in mind and a playful spirit! We will offer independent 1.5-hour sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays from July 6 through July 27. Sessions, inspired by the Art, Books, and Creativity (ABC) Institutes and NMWA’s collection, are hands-on, participatory, and fun. Sessions will explore NMWA’s collection and resources, introduce historic and contemporary women artists, and engage participants in experimental making and close looking. Guest instructors include artists and educators from around the country. You will receive a recommended supply list, applicable digital resources, and a Zoom meeting link in advance of each session. Camp activities are designed to make use of materials and tools you might have at home, to encourage repurposing and seeing everyday objects in a new light. Register for one session or many depending on your interest and commitments. Registration required.
Exhibitions
The Sky’s the Limit
Opens Saturday, October 21, 2023
The contemporary sculptures in this exhibition dangle from the ceiling, cascade down walls and extend far beyond their footprint on the gallery floor. Process-focused sculptures were pioneered by women creators in the mid-20th century, and they continually expand and redefine this medium. Never-before-exhibited artworks from the museum’s collection by Sonya Clark, Beatriz Milhazes, Cornelia Parker, Mariah Robertson, Shinique Smith and Joana Vasconcelos form the core of this presentation. They illuminate how artists use scale and the allure of materials for maximum impact. Towering artworks on view feature an array of found objects such as silver-plated vessels, hair combs, ostrich eggs and parasols, as well as essential materials ranging from aluminum to wool.
The Sky’s the Limit is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts. This exhibition is underwritten by Presenting Sponsor Denise Littlefield Sobel.
Curatorial research funds were provided by Marcia Myers Carlucci. Additional support for the exhibition catalogue comes from the Deborah Buck Foundation.
In Focus: Artists at Work
Opens Saturday, October 21, 2023
Enjoy a close-up look into the practices and perspectives of eight contemporary collection artists via short documentary-style videos. Presented in NMWA’s ground-floor Long Gallery, welcoming visitors to the renewed museum, these videos feature Ambreen Butt, Sonya Clark, Colette Fu, the Guerrilla Girls, Graciela Iturbide, Delita Martin, Rania Matar and Alison Saar. The installation’s intimate and immersive design sparks curiosity, inspires advocacy and encourages slow looking during visitors’ exploration of the museum. Dynamic graphic panels include information about each artist and share online resources as well as a map leading to their art on view at NMWA. Presented in two phases, with four artists highlighted in each phase, this series spotlights groundbreaking women artists at work today.
For this project, NMWA partnered with Emmy and James Beard award-winning film production company Smartypants and experiential design firm Art Processors to ensure an accessible and enriching experience.
Hung Liu: Making History
Opens Saturday, October 21, 2023
“Weeping” paintings and prints by Hung Liu (1948–2021)—featuring signature paint drips, layers of color, and cultural symbols—pay homage to overlooked figures in history, predominantly vulnerable women and children from the artist’s native China. Liu lived through Mao Zedong’s totalitarian regime during the Cultural Revolution before immigrating to the U.S., and her work reveals boundless empathy for the plights of the working class. Drawing inspiration from a collection of vintage photographs that she discovered on a return visit to China in the 1990s, she portrays migrant laborers, sex workers, female soldiers and refugees with dignity, endurance, strength and courage.
Impressive: Antoinette Bouzonnet-Stella
Opens Saturday, October 21, 2023
The Entrance of the Emperor Sigismond into Mantua (1675), an extraordinary series of 25 prints by 17th-century French artist Antoinette Bouzonnet-Stella (1641–1676) is presented at NMWA for the first time in almost 15 years. The exhibition explores the circumstances of the work’s creation and focuses on Bouzonnet-Stella’s life in Paris, where she lived and worked with her uncle, artist Jacques Stella, in his prestigious lodgings in the Louvre. There, she produced copies of his paintings and accepted commissions for works such as The Entrance of the Emperor Sigismond into Mantua, her best-known work.
Holding Ground: Artists’ Books for the National Museum of Women in the Arts
Opens Saturday, October 21, 2023
Nine new works by celebrated book artists inaugurate NMWA’s new Learning Commons and its reinvigorated Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center. Some of the artists reflect on NMWA as a special place for art by women. Others remind viewers that creativity is expressed in other environs, from small interiors to vast outdoor geographies. Above all, the artists’ books celebrate the varied spaces where women’s creativity blooms. Participating artists include Alisa Banks, Adjoa J. Burrowes, Julie Chen, Suzanne Coley, IBé Crawley, Maricarmen Solis Diaz, Colette Fu, Kerry McAleer-Keeler and María Verónica San Martín.
Information
Renovation: The museum building at 1250 New York Avenue NW is closed for a major renovation, with plans to reopen on October 21. 2023. Visit nmwa.org/renovation for more information.
Contact: nmwa.org, 202-783-5000
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