FROM THE FOUNDER Dear Friends of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, While the difficulties of the ongoing pandemic have confronted us all, the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) has risen to the challenges of these months. Our leadership, staff, and supporters are carrying us through this time with commitment and care. Reflecting on our recent fiscal year calls to mind the wonderful exhibitions of late 2019 and early 2020. The museum debuted Judy Chicago’s newest body of work, The End: A Meditation on Death and Extinction. It drew record-breaking attendance and a rave review from the Washington Post, among other prominent publications. We have known and advocated for Chicago’s work for decades, stretching back to the time when she was searching for a permanent home for The Dinner Party. Our partnership extends to NMWA’s Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center, which holds Chicago’s visual archives, part of the Judy Chicago Research Portal that recently debuted to the public. In October, we opened Women Artists of the Dutch Golden Age in the Teresa Lozano Long Gallery. This focus exhibition included paintings that showcase the talents of women from this groundbreaking era in art history. The beautiful floral still lifes, prints, and portraits were complemented by rare book loans from the Folger Shakespeare Library and National Gallery of Art that testified to the artists’ renown. Among other press, the Wall Street Journal called the show “thoughtfully selected, informative, and sometimes surprising.” Across the country and internationally, our committees hosted programs in their regions in preparation for the exhibition Paper Routes—Women to Watch 2020. Many of them organized talks and exhibitions to share the works of nominated artists from their regions. Partnerships led to wonderful presentations of the nominated artists’ work at venues such as Sotheby’s in London, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, and Gallery Kayafas in Boston. These programs spread the museum’s mission as well as the work of emerging and underrepresented women artists around the world. We ended fiscal 2020 on solid financial ground, thanks to our dedicated members and friends. Your sustained commitment ensures the health of our museum so that it can continue to celebrate the great women artists of yesterday and today.
Sincerely,
Wilhelmina Cole Holladay Chair of the Board
2 NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WOMEN IN THE ARTS
Founder's photo by Michele Mattei
