National Museum of Women in the Arts Announces New Portal with Virtual Resources, Featuring Art by Women

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.
April 6, 2020
4/6/20
Current exhibition Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico now an online resource

WASHINGTON—The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) announces NMWA @ Home, a dynamic new resource for virtual activities and resources while the museum is temporarily closed due to the Covid-19 outbreak. NMWA @ Home is a portal to explore the work of great women artists with links to online exhibitions, collections, artist profiles, talks and news as well as art podcast and video recommendations.

“We need connection and community now more than ever, and the arts can provide that bridge,” said NMWA Director Susan Fisher Sterling. “Art offers powerful ways for us to visualize our shared humanity, and museums have often served as places of refuge and solace. It is truly unprecedented that when we need it most, we are unable to physically come together to experience all that great art has to offer. I am thankful for the capacity to share the museum digitally, and invite everyone to join us online.”

Digital resources include highlights from NMWA’s online collection searchable by name, time period, medium and theme; artist profiles featuring women artists of the past and present; and high-resolution images through Google Arts & Culture. NMWA’s Broad Strokes blog features in-depth explorations of artworks and stories of artists in the collection and exhibitions. Every week NMWA publishes Art Fix Friday, a news roundup about women artists and issues related to gender equity in the arts. The most recent digital issue of NMWA’s Women in the Arts magazine, usually only for members, is also available online.

Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico, one of the museum’s current exhibitions with work by one of the best-known artists in Latin America, is also now available as a digital exhibition, providing an immersive look at Iturbide’s lyrical photography. A new online exhibition, Delita Martin: Calling Down the Spirits, features audio commentary from the artist. She explains her portraits of the interconnections between past and present generations, and the techniques that she employs. Additional online versions of recent exhibitions and curated views of the collection include: Dressed to Impress: Fashion in the Collection; No Man’s Land: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection; Organic Matters: Women to Watch; Balancing Act: The Paintings of Fanny Sanín; and Mamacita Linda: Letters between Frida Kahlo and her Mother.

NMWA’s Fresh Talks, the signature Women, Arts, and Social Change public program, highlights the power of women and the arts as catalysts for change. Viewers can watch previous Fresh Talk events on NMWA’s YouTube channel.

In addition, NMWA has developed curricula for educators, with resources that can also be used by parents at home with their children.

NMWA’s staff is working to enhance and add online content for children, students, families and adults. More offerings will be available in the coming days and weeks. The museum is active daily on social media on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, sharing, amplifying and celebrating women artists who are changing the world.

National Museum of Women in the Arts

The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) is the only major museum in the world solely dedicated to championing women through the arts. With its collections, exhibitions, programs and online content, the museum inspires dynamic exchanges about art and ideas. NMWA advocates for better representation of women artists and serves as a vital center for thought leadership, community engagement and social change. NMWA addresses the gender imbalance in the presentation of art by bringing to light important women artists of the past while promoting great women artists working today. The collections highlight painting, sculpture, photography, and video by artists including Louise Bourgeois, Mary Cassatt, Judy Chicago, Frida Kahlo, Shirin Neshat, Faith Ringgold, Pipilotti Rist, Amy Sherald and Élisabeth Louise Vigée-LeBrun.

During the current closure, the museum welcomes members of the public to explore its social media accounts and online resources. NMWA is located at 1250 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. For information, call 202-783-5000, visit nmwa.org, Broad Strokes blog, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

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