WASHINGTON—Champion women artists this season at the National Museum of Women in the Arts! Visit Suchitra Mattai: Myth from Matter, a new exhibition of the multi-disciplinary artist’s explorations of complex binaries. NMWA Nights, the popular late-night program, returns with dates throughout the fall, including an opening night celebration for the new photography exhibition Samantha Box: Confluences. Save the date for a Fresh Talk with podcasters and culture critics Hunter Harris and Peyton Dix, as well as hands-on workshops in the studio.
The information below is current as of September 2024. All times listed are Eastern Time. For more information, visit the museum’s online calendar. To request access services, please check the online calendar for contact information or email accessibility@nmwa.org.
In the Galleries
Free Community Day
Sunday, October 6, Wednesday, October 9; Sunday, November 3, Wednesday, November 13; Sunday, December 1, Wednesday, December 11; Sunday, January 5, Wednesday, January 8; Sunday, February 2, Wednesday, February 12, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
Visit us on the first Sunday and second Wednesday of each month for free museum admission. Take this opportunity to explore our collection and current exhibitions. Attend a tour and join NMWA educators in the museum’s studio for free, self-directed drop-in art-making activities inspired by artworks on view. Activities and inspirations change each month. Free. Reservations required.
NMWA Nights
Wednesdays, October 16, November 20, January 15, February 19, 5:30–8 p.m.
Join us for a creative and engaging after-hours experience! Peruse the galleries, grab a cocktail, listen to a performance, attend a tour or participate in art-making and craft activities. In September, poet Alexa Patrick hosts an evening of spoken word poetry, featuring local poets Marjan Naderi, Carlynn Newhouse, Dwayne Lawson-Brown, Lauren May and Tatiana Figueroa Ramríez. In October, meet local embroiderers and try your own embroidery to celebrate the opening of Suchitra Mattai: Myth from Matter. In November, be the first to visit Samantha Box: Confluences, and learn tips and tricks to take your own photography to the next level. Ticket includes two drinks; additional drinks for purchase. $25; $22 for seniors/students; $20 NMWA members. Reservations required; tickets available the first week of the preceding month.
Closing Day: Fourth Floor Exhibitions
Sunday, October 20, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
This is your last chance to visit a trio of exhibitions in the museum’s Learning Commons: Hung Liu: Making History, featuring “Weeping” paintings and prints by Hung Liu (1948–2021) with her signature paint drips, layers of color and cultural symbols; Holding Ground: Artists’ Books for the National Museum of Women in the Arts, featuring nine new works by celebrated book artists inaugurating NMWA’s Learning Commons and its reinvigorated Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center; and Impressive: Antoinette Bouzonnet-Stella, a presentation of The Entrance of the Emperor Sigismond into Mantua, an extraordinary series of 25 prints by 17th-century French artist Antoinette Bouzonnet-Stella (1641–1676). Free with admission.
Gallery Talks
Wednesdays, 12–12:30 p.m.
Thematic talks highlight two to three works on view. Topics and locations in the museum vary. Free. Reservations not required. Meet at the Information Desk. Subject to staff availability.
Collection Highlights Tours
Daily, 2–2:45 p.m.
Explore the museum’s collection during engaging, interactive drop-in tours. These guided experiences will feature six to eight works on view highlighting the creative contributions of artists from the 16th century to today. Free with admission. Reservations not required. Meet at the Information Desk. Subject to docent availability.
Women, Arts, and Social Change
Makers’ Market
Sunday, December 1, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.
Join us for a special holiday market featuring goods from women and gender-expansive vendors, makers and artists. Shop handmade jewelry, art, ceramics and vintage finds in our museum’s Great Hall. Free. Reservations not required.
Fresh Talk: Suchitra Mattai and Aruna D’Souza
Wednesday, December 11, 6.–8 p.m.
Join us for a conversation between artist Suchitra Mattai and writer Aruna D’Souza. They will delve into the powerful meaning behind Mattai’s contemporary artworks and their juxtapositions with historical objects in the exhibition. Together, Mattai and D’Souza will explore how the artist’s works challenge conventional colonialist narratives and offer an alternate vision that centers women of color. This Fresh Talk will provide deep insights into Mattai’s vision of the transformative power of art. The talk will be followed by a salon-style cocktail hour. $25; $22 for seniors/students; $20 NMWA members. Reservations required.
Fresh Talk: Hunter Harris and Peyton Dix
Wednesday, February 12, 6.–8 p.m.
In a world where pop culture shapes societal norms and values, how are women depicted and discussed? Hunter Harris and Peyton Dix bring their sharp wit and insightful commentary from the podcast “Lemme Say This” to NMWA, examining the portrayal of women in media, film and literature. Through their unique lens, Harris and Dix will explore the often-harsh scrutiny women face compared to their male counterparts. The talk will be followed by a salon-style cocktail hour. $25; $22 for seniors/students; $20 NMWA members. Reservations required.
In the Studio
The Bigger Picture: Artists’ Actions
Sunday, October 27, 2–3:30 p.m.
Looking to expand your knowledge of women’s contributions to the history of Western art? Tired of outdated surveys that still marginalize them? Join Director of Education and Interpretation Deborah Gaston as she recounts compelling biographies and introduces mediums and genres in which women have innovated. Through mark-making, performance, appropriation and activism (among other actions), artists explore and question identity, politics, the environment, gender and the nature of art itself. $25; $22 seniors, students and D.C. residents; $20 members. Reservations required.
Firsthand Experience Workshop: Bookmaking
Saturday, October 12, 10 a.m.–3 p.m.
Firsthand Experience workshops bring contemporary artists together with learners ages 13 and older for hands-on programs that combine making, conversations and discovery. In this session, explore bookmaking techniques with artist Sarah Matthews and create your own one-of-a-kind artist book. $25; $22 seniors, students and D.C. residents; $20 NMWA members. Reservations required.
Firsthand Experience Workshop: Plant Portraits
Saturday, November 9, 10 a.m.–3 p.m.
In this workshop, Amy Lamb, scientist turned photographer, teaches how she cultivates and captures the souls of plants in her images and helps you to create your own photographs. The workshop begins at NMWA, where participants will experience Lamb’s work on view. Then, the group heads to the United States Botanic Garden, where they will meet staff to learn about and photograph in-season plants. Digital camera or cell phone required. No experience required. $25; $22 students, seniors and D.C residents; $20 members. Reservations required.
Firsthand Experience: Cyanotypes
Saturday, January 11, 11 a.m.–3 p.m.
In this session, learn about the history, science and art behind the camera-less photography technique of cyanotypes. Create your own with the instruction and encouragement of artist Natalie Cheung. $25; $22 students, seniors and D.C residents; $20 members. Reservations required.
Virtual Programs
Artists’ Voices: Holding Ground
Thursday, October 3, 1–2 p.m.
Online
Join us for a lively conversation with celebrated book artists Alisa Banks, Julie Chen, Suzanne Coley and Maricarmen Solis, as they reflect on the genre of artists’ books and their works in the exhibition Holding Ground: Artists’ Books for the National Museum of Women in the Arts (closing October 20, 2024). Elizabeth Ajunwa, director of the Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center, will moderate. Holding Ground features nine new works by celebrated book artists to inaugurate NMWA’s Learning Commons. Free. Reservations required.
Art Chats @ 5
Fridays, October 25, November 22, December 27, January 24, February 28, 5–5:45 p.m.
Online
Jump-start your weekend with art from home! 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.
Exhibitions
Suchitra Mattai: Myth from Matter
September 20, 2024–January 12, 2025
In her multifaceted artistic practice, Suchitra Mattai (b. 1973, Georgetown, Guyana) explores and complicates understandings of binaries such as East and West, art and craft, and history and memory. The way certain histories are remembered—or not—is central to much of her art. This exhibition pairs Mattai’s recent work, including mixed-media installation and sculpture, with historical objects sourced from nearby collections in Washington, D.C. For the first time, this exhibition provides the opportunity for a visual call and response between historical objects and Mattai’s contemporary work.
Suchitra Mattai: Myth from Matter is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The exhibition is generously supported by Stephanie Sale and the members of NMWA.
Samantha Box: Confluences
November 20, 2024–March 23, 2025
Bronx-based photographer Samantha Box (b. 1977, Kingston, Jamaica) navigates social and cultural landscapes through complex images exploring race, gender, class and sexuality. Black-and-white documentary photographs from her series “Invisible” depict New York City’s LGBTQIA+ youth of color. The series reveals community-defined spaces and chosen family bonds that work to counter her subjects’ experiences with homophobia and transphobia. In vibrant staged images, Box’s ongoing studio practice, “Caribbean Dreams,” shifts inward, as the artist articulates her own diasporic Indo-Afro-Caribbean identity through personal and historical narratives.
Samantha Box: Confluences is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts in partnership with the Des Moines Art Center. The exhibition is generously supported by the members of NMWA.
Uncanny
February 28–August 10, 2025
Unearthly, enigmatic and psychologically tense, the works in Uncanny give form to women artists’ powerful expressions of existential unease. This exhibition surveys the use of the uncanny from the Surrealist movement to the present. Artists subvert gender stereotypes and explore feminist issues through disquieting spaces, fantastical figures and technology that appears eerily human.
Hung Liu: Making History
Through October 20, 2024
“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.
Hung Liu: Making History is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The exhibition is generously supported by Stephanie Sale and the members of NMWA.
Holding Ground: Artists’ Books for the National Museum of Women in the Arts
Through October 20, 2024
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.
Holding Ground: Artists’ Books for the National Museum of Women in the Arts is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The exhibition is made possible by a generous bequest from Marjorie B. Rachlin.
Impressive: Antoinette Bouzonnet-Stella
Through October 20, 2024
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.
Impressive: Antoinette Bouzonnet-Stella is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The exhibition is generously supported by Stephanie Sale and the members of NMWA.
In Focus: Artists at Work
Through April 20, 2025
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.
In Focus: Artists at Work is produced by the National Museum of Women in the Arts in collaboration with Smartypants Pictures and Art Processors.
The video series is generously supported by the members of NMWA. Project design is made possible through the generous support of Denise Littlefield Sobel, with additional funding provided by Jamie Gorelick and Richard Waldhorn.
Display screens contributed by Sony Corporation of America.
Remix: The Collection
Ongoing
Remix showcases familiar collection favorites as well as never-before-exhibited recent acquisitions. Artworks are grouped around themes, in some cases anchored by a medium and in others by an idea, that resonate among global artists across time, including photography, fiber works, the colors red and purple, nature, domesticity and more.
Remix: The Collection is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
The exhibition is sponsored by Lugano Diamonds.
Additional funding provided by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Sue J. Henry and Carter G. Phillips Exhibition Fund, and the Clara M. Lovett Emerging Artists Fund.
Information
Hours: 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday; Closed Mondays and select holidays
Location: 1250 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20005, two blocks north of Metro Center
Admission: $16 for adults, $13 for D.C. residents and visitors 70 and over; free for visitors 21 and under and visitors with disabilities. Admission is free the first Sunday and second Wednesday of each month.
Information: nmwa.org, 202-783-5000
Social Media: Broad Strokes blog, Facebook or Instagram